The day of the freelancer may be rapidly approaching with 1,500 small businesses saying they expect more than half of their workforce in five years to be online contractors, according to a survey by eLance.
To be fair, eLance, an online employment service, is talking its own book. The survey was of small companies that use eLance.
But we are hearing more stories about laid-off workers, new grads and just people who like the variety of contract work striking out on their own by offering their services online.
The advantage for the workers is the freedom, but the downside is no benefits like health insurance, sick days and paid vacation.
Overall, 73% of the eLance businesses surveyed said they would be hiring more contract workers this year.
Of those 73% would be people working online rather than on site at the company.
Web programmer/developers were the most sought after contract workers, with 70% of the businesses saying those skills would be most valuable to their company.
Other skills in demand:
- Graphic designer/multi-media expert: 61%
- Writer/blogger/content creator: 38%
- Online marketer (SEO/SEM/Social Media): 32%
- Mobile developer: 28%
Within the next five years, the businesses estimated 54% of their workers would be online contractors.
And the biggest reason cited for hiring contractors? Cost savings. ELance said hiring contract workers translated into more than a 53% cost savings for businesses.
So tell us …
Read the eLance survey HERE.
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