Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Freelancing...it's the new black

One third of the respondents to a poll by The Daily Beast are either working two jobs, or are full-on freelancers. That's a lot. And half of those job-jugglers made the switch within the last six months, according to this article. That's fast.

The polls' results are here, in pdf format. It shows that of the 500 internet interview respondents, 22% considered themselves freelancers. Of the 500, 23% held more than one job.

Pay didn't vary too much between the freelancers and the 78% who worked for a company. 15% of both earned over $100,000 per year. 33% of freelancers and 37% of company employees earned less than $40,000.

My favorite question: Regardless of what you do now, would you prefer to work for yourself or for a company? 55% answered "For myself." Yes, it is sweet.

Tina Brown wrote a related piece, "The Gig Economy," in which she said the poll explained why it takes ten minutes to answer the question, "So what are you up to these days?"

Must be why my acquaintances have stopped asking me that. OTOH, I don't ask them how their job is going unless I'm prepared to listed to 20 minutes of venting about the stupidity of their customers/coworkers/clients. I guess it evens out in the end.

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