So Much for the Freelance Economy

[chipotle]

"In 2000, research firm EPIC/MRA...estimated that 41 percent of all Americans would be private contractors by 2010. But today, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that self-employment numbers have not grown at all over the last four years." [Wired News]

This is a little article occasioned by the impending closure of "Guru.com," a freelancers' network I looked into a year or so ago and actually joined. It didn't lead me anywhere, but apparently some folks were relying on it for a substantial amount of their leads. It raises some interesting big-picture questions. A lot of us, particularly in the tech sector, have been encouraged to "go freelance" in this market, since the hiring by and large isn't there. If the problem is that the work isn't there, though, doesn't that make "freelancing" a synonym for "unemployed?"

Comments

[pathia.livejournal.com]

This is just another symptom of the shifted average risk/reward constant of the US economy.

After the bubble burst and then 9/11 people and corporations started to pull in their money and invest it much more safer or just outright keep it in a savings account, or sink it into land holdings for tax purposes.

People are out there and things can be done, but the corporations are all scared to do anything new and radical because of the bubble and the scandals of the last decade.

This is what the recent tax cut is attempting to break. By lowering the cost of investing it might make people rethink their risk/reward ratios yet again and start investing.

Not the place to debate if that's the best thing to do to change the ratio, but that's their intent.