Wednesday, January 14, 2009
CNN Says I'm Right
Well, not in so many words. However, there was an article posted today that discusses how businesses are making more use of independent contractors than they used to, and why. As I discussed in my 2009 predictions post from last week, the uncertainty, reduced costs, and increased short-term nature of staffing needs are the driving forces behind this. The article also discusses why people choose to go freelance rather than work on a full-time basis for a company. Definitely worth a read.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Interesting article! It looks like there's a growing trend of self-employment in the U.K. as well. I came across this link to a press release on the establishment of FreelanceAdvisor.co.uk, a networking site for the freelance community: http://www.przoom.com/news/42932/.
ReplyDeleteApparently, there are approximately 1.4 million freelancers in the U.K. Although the article doesn’t state how this number compares to the overall workforce, unemployment in the U.K. has apparently reached an 11-year high – which reinforces that the number of self-employed workers will continue to grow.
What’s also interesting is that 183,000 out of the 1.4 million self-employed workers freelance as a second job. This is definitely an appealing option, as it still allows workers to receive insurance and tax benefits, as well as experience workplace interaction and other perks of being a “regular” company employee.
Personally speaking, I think the latter option is a definite possibility – especially in a couple of years, after I complete my Masters and when my son gets a little older. I recently learned about elance.com and guru.com, which are great resources for the freelancing community!