So Much For The Freelance Economy

from the not-quite-what-was-expected dept

During the boom years, it was very popular to discuss the coming “freelance economy”, where big businesses with many employees didn’t exist in the same form they do today. Instead, the theory went, most people would be independent contractors who would work for many different companies on a rotating contractual basis. It would be more efficient, people would have more freedom and independence, and companies would be able to better specialize their labor needs. Of course, a funny thing happened on the way to this party… the economy collapsed, and people became desperate for the security of a fulltime job. The various “freelance” job boards that sprung up during the boom years all seem to be shutting down, as they’re all freelance and no jobs.


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Comments on “So Much For The Freelance Economy”

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3 Comments
Eric says:

A race to the bottom

I’ve been a freelance artist/psuedo techie/independant contractor for 13 yrs. Every freelance board I ever checked out was a race to the bottom with clueless hr staff/clients trolling for the lowest bidder with no consideration for quality of work. No thanks, that’s no way to stay in business.

Anonymous Coward says:

freelancing is alive and well...

…in places like India and the P.I.

The US holds no future when you consider that there are so many underexploited, talented wokers who already speak good to perfect English (not American).

Large companies are making this a reality even as we speak. Eventually things in .pk and .in will settle down and they’ll shelve their nukes and things will never be the same again. The American worker’s primary value in the world economy is as a consumer with a disproprtionaly large disposable income.

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