Every successful business, company, or corporation reaches those heights predominantly because of the people they employ who help get them there. Even the best idea, service, or product can be difficult to remain profitable without the right people working on marketing, branding, sales, customer service, and every other facet of a well-run organization. Yet the task of finding those people is becoming harder and harder, according to the technology and internet news source TechCrunch.com.
“Three macroeconomic factors are converging to make hiring more challenging for companies,” wrote Stephane Kasriel, a Tech Crunch contributor and CEO of the freelance platform Upwork. Those factors include, “The strengthening economy; the increase in demand for technically skilled workers; and the rise of the freelance economy.”
As Kasriel explains in more detail, the first two factors are pretty self-explanatory. A growing economy means less overall unemployment and higher average incomes, which means less available talent pools to choose from and more competition from other companies initially. Technology is not-so-slowly taking over virtually every aspect of society so of course people with these skills are getting hired at rapid rates.
The third factor is one that’s somewhat unique to this generation. While there have certainly been freelance, contracted, and independent procurement solutions in this country since the early days of the economy, they haven’t yet existed to the size and scale they do today.
Over the past year alone, the acquisition of independent contractors, or freelance talent, has grown by 700,000 and about 34% of the American workforce, according to a study by Edelamn Berland. In total, about 90% of firms utilize freelance talent in some way.
Many people start doing freelance work to supplement their regular income, but end up enjoying the freedom and compensation associated with it that they end up quitting their “day jobs” entirely. Plus there are the perks such as being able to drive one’s own children to school every day, like freelance software and app developer Fred Talmadge can now do.
“Professionally, I learn more every day by working on different types of projects of my choosing as a freelancer, and it keeps things fresh,” Talmadge said.
The best of the best in any industry or profession will always have the most options to choose from as far an employment goes. The only problem for major businesses and companies is that these talented potential employees now have more options and flexibility than ever. After all, they can’t really blame someone for choosing to make their own schedule rather than lock themselves into a job entailing 9-to-5 drudgery.