Why so many people are freelancing

Excerpt from fastcompany.com

Over the past year, we’ve covered the changing landscape of the traditional workplace and the factors behind the Great Resignation. But what about those who left full-time, salaried positions? Or those who have long approached work differently?

Freelancing is on the rise. According to the freelance marketplace Upwork, the number of full-time freelancers grew from 28% in 2019 to 36% in 2020. And while the pandemic may have accelerated the the trend, it’s not showing signs of slowing. In fact, it’s projected that in five years, by 2027, 86.5 million people will be freelancing in the United States. That’s half of the total U.S. workforce.

To understand why more people are freelancing, I spoke to Hayden Brown, the president and CEO of freelancing platform Upwork, on this week’s episode of The New Way We Work.

Brown noted that, while the overall number of freelancers is increasing, it’s an approach to work that’s especially popular with Gen Z workers–48% of which she notes, are already freelancing. “As younger generations of workers have seen those experiences of older workers, they have also seen that traditional full-time employment is not all it’s cracked up to be. And that working for a single company is not actually a low-risk proposition necessarily.” she says. “They’re finding that they are actually feeling more comfortable by having a career that is freelance. Whereas I think older and other generations of workers had an opposite view where they felt that the entrepreneurial career path might have been more risky.”

 

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