The Rise Of The Contract Workforce (npr.org)

An anonymous reader shares a report: A new NPR/Marist poll finds that 1 in 5 jobs in America is held by a worker under contract. Within a decade, contractors and freelancers could make up half of the American workforce. Workers across all industries and at all professional levels will be touched by the movement toward independent work -- one without the constraints, or benefits, of full-time employment. Policymakers are just starting to talk about the implications.

[...] It's not just business driving the trend. Surveys show a large majority of freelancers are free agents by choice. John Vensel is a contract attorney at Orrick who grew up a few miles from Wheeling, on the other side of the Pennsylvania state line. In his 20s, he was a freelance paralegal by day and a gig musician by night. "I actually wanted to be a rock star," he says. But these days there are no edgy vestiges of a former rocker, only a 47-year-old family man cooing over cellphone photos of his children, Grace and Gabe. In the two decades in between, Vensel worked full-time corporate jobs. But he was laid off in 2010, on the eve of his graduation from his night-school law program. He graduated with huge piles of debt, into one of the worst job markets. For a time, Vensel commuted three hours round-trip to a full-time job in Pittsburgh. But more recently, he quit and took up contracting to stay near home in Wheeling.

Comments

try before you buy

[js290]

Contract workers is effectively "try before you buy" on an employee. It's getting increasingly difficult to fire poor performing employees. Contract is a good bet for employers.

Re:try before you buy

[AF_Cheddar_Head]

It's getting increasingly difficult to fire poor performing employees. C

With the proliferation of "Right to Work" laws and states it has gotten much easier to get rid of any employee for practically any non-discriminatory reason, including their politics.

Non-union employees have essentially zero job protections and with the death of unions we have fewer and fewer union employees.

Re:Glad I'm retiring soon

[houstonbofh]

The social contract has been deteriorating for a long time, and it was not only republicans doing it. Loyalty from both sides (employers/employees) has faded to almost nothing now. A friend and I were working the same job in 2000. He is still there and has more vacation then he is allowed to take, and good money. But I have time off whenever I want and also good money. Contracting works for me!

What do you want us to say?

[H3lldr0p]

The situation sucks. Not only in the present but it was make the future suck as well because everyone caught in it are going to feel a crunch come retirement, if they ever do get to retire. There's no guarantees with the mighty 401(k) and IRA that are tied to market forces which we have no command or control over.

There are structural problems with our society that allow this to happen. It's not only coded in our employment laws but also in the anti-union bent of corporate profit imperatives. We want people to take responsibility for their own success but remove every single tool that might be used for that through black-letter law or through making it so expensive in seeking redress of wrongs it become untenable, even in principle, to see it done. We allow for unilateral NDAs to be upheld. We allow for so much to be hidden away that even if I were to invest the time (as if I had the time to invest) looking into a potential employer, I wouldn't find be able to find the problems they have.

So what do you want us to talk about here? We know about it. We work as well as we can within it. There's public outcry but no political will to do anything. This is the endpoint of 40 years of corporate political influence. What's there to be surprised about it?

Re:What do you want us to say?

[El Cubano]

The situation sucks. Not only in the present but it was make the future suck as well because everyone caught in it are going to feel a crunch come retirement, if they ever do get to retire. There's no guarantees with the mighty 401(k) and IRA that are tied to market forces which we have no command or control over.

I disagree. It allows tremendous freedom to those who prefer that sort of employment arrangement. For example, if you only want to work 6 months out of the year, that is sort of difficult to accomplish with a traditional full-time job. However as a contractor or gig worker, you can easily do that if you want.

Also, if you are concerned about the markets, then invest your IRA or 401(k) in something other than stocks. You do know that you can invest in precious metals, government bonds, real estate, foreign stock markets, or even designate a traditional savings account as your IRA vehicle, right? No need to subject your retirement savings to the risks of the stock market unless you want to.

Re:What do you want us to say?

[bobbied]

There are structural problems with our society that allow this to happen.

What the.... Seriously?

You DO remember from history class that Social Security, Medicare, 401ks and pension plans didn't exist for the bulk of the USA's history. Seems to me that prior to the great depression folks lived pretty well and dealt with retirement just fine, caring for their own families, not just letting government do it.

The ISSUE in society is the "I have to have it now" bent we generally all have and a total lack of discipline in financial planning for rainy days. It used to be that being in debt was a bad thing, but now, having tens of thousands of unsecured debt is a way of life, where the struggle to make ends meet incudes being able to make the minimum payments on your credit cards and student loans.

I get that it's not always possible to control income and expenses, that unforeseen circumstances happen from time to time. But dang it folks, we need to plan ahead a whole lot better and start saving money. It's called delayed satisfaction and some of us where not taught that as children and now need to learn it as adults. Most of us will make more than a million dollars in our first decade of work but we pitter it away on junk and end up 10 years in with nothing but debt. That's just wrong...

So yes, the issue is our culture, the problem is within ourselves and inside the individual is where the solution is. We need to become responsible adults, live within our means and save for retirement ourselves, because it's apparent to me that there is zero chance the government or anybody else has enough resources to do it for me, you and everybody else too. You want to retire comfortably? It's up to you to make that happen. It doesn't matter if you work as a contractor, for yourself, or as an employee, YOU are responsible for you.

Re:What do you want us to say?

[fluffernutter]

Yes it's the same old 'sock your money away until you die' philosophy. People don't know when they will die. My wife has been seriously ill twice, should we be living an ultra-frugal life now and basically making our lives miserable and never doing anything fun together as a family so I can have a big pile of money once everyone has gone their own separate way? I understand that there are over spenders, but what I am saying is that there are under spenders too.

Re:What do you want us to say?

[Anonymous Coward]

Except prior to the Great Depression, half of all Americans lived in poverty, and 80% of seniors did too. Let's not go back to the Gilded Age.

Re:What do you want us to say?

[bobbied]

There is a whole lot more over spenders than under spenders.

My wife almost died a couple of times too when my kids where very young. Once from pancreatitis when a retained gall stone blocked her bile duct even though her gall bladder had been removed 2 years before and the second time when she came down with sarcoidosis stumping her doctors for almost a week. My kids where both in grade school at the time. So I know what you are talking about.

Not knowing when you are going to die is only an excuse to spend for some. There is a balance in life as in anything, but MOST people spend too much, very few to little. The actuarial tables in the USA are a good place to start for retirement planning, they will tell you how old you will likely be when you die. I'd plan for something in the 90 percentile or so and work from there. Personally, I don't mind leaving a few bucks for the kids so over shooting isn't a problem.

I have known one guy who was a confirmed under spender. He died, worth tens of millions, in his one room log cabin with one light bulb in the early 80's with no one to leave it to but a distant relative he never saw. That's sad... But it wasn't nearly as sad as my grandmother who died having lived on Social Security for multiple decades and the sweet old lady who I knew growing up in the same situation. Living where you have to choose between food or medication is a sad existence too. There is a middle road here.

Re:What do you want us to say?

[fluffernutter]

What if saving for retirement is beyond this balance for many people? There are a lot of people who don't make enough to both save for retirement and live a comfortable life. Just because they haven't socked money away doesn't mean they are financially irresponsible.

Re:What do you want us to say?

[Anonymous Coward]

If it is a continual struggle to meet one's obligations month to month and you cannot save anything because of it, you need to reduce expenses.

You need to get out of your bubble bobby. For many people, there are no more expenses to cut without choosing to be homeless. For a few, cutting expenses means dying to whatever ailment is sucking their 40k salary dry and then some, thus the credit cards.

Re:Glad I'm retiring soon

[Anonymous Coward]

The destruction of the Unions has been a primary goal of the GOP because Union members have traditionally voted Dem.

This is not a bipartisan issue, it is clearly pushed by the GOP

As far a the benefits of contracting go, they are short term and will most likely result in the dissolution of Social Security, pensions and every other safety net that does not put money into corporate pockets

Because Companies are mistreating their Employees

[Quantus347]

The dirty little secret of this trend is that it's happening because the employers increasingly getting away with policies that in past times would have been called mistreatment of their workforce. The American workforce has increasingly moved out of the blue collar industries that had fought long and hard for Regulatory and Union protections, to the comparatively unregulated and unprotected world of white collar drudgery. Things like Union protections and Pension Programs are a things of the past, and loyalty (in either direction) has been entirely removed from the equation.

The vast majority of people would not cast off the security of a large organization and take on all the risk of going freelance while there are alternative. But increasingly the Companies are asking for more and more from their employees and giving less and less in return, to the point where the Hassle&Restriction of a large organization out weights diminishing expectation of Job Security that is the whole point.

Re:I'd be cool with this...

[DMJC]

heh you just described literally every other country in the western world.

Re:Glad I'm retiring soon

[cayenne8]

Loyalty from both sides (employers/employees) has faded to almost nothing now.

This has been going on for a LOOOONG time.

At least a couple of decades ago, I realized that there was no loyalty of the employer to the employee.

The W2 employee is JUST as readily fired/let go as the 1099 contractor.

I figured, hey, if you have the job security of a contractor, you might as well get the bill rate of a contractor.

Just make sure to incorporate yourself...makes life easier.

I went the S-Corp route, never looked back.

Re:Glad I'm retiring soon

[Anonymous Coward]

How cute. He actually believes unions care about him beyond his dues and adding a head to the collective threat of a strike...

Why do people like instability?

[ErichTheRed]

I'm one of those strange people who prefers a full time job, with a steady paycheck. I know the absolute dollar value for contracts in my field is higher than I get as an FTE, but everyone I know doing contract work is constantly hustling for a new job and never knows where their money will be coming from. I work for an IT services company so I get tons of exposure to different projects. I'm not sure I'd feel the same way if I didn't get work that varied often, but knowing you're going to be paid and can cover your expenses is a relief. I'm not a natural salesman, and really don't want to be looking for work again 2 weeks into a 3-month contract. We employ contractors in some positions where I work, and it's not exactly a ringing endorsement of the contracting lifestyle overhearing them calling headhunters, juggling bills, etc.

People with families, houses and other fixed committments tend to favor steady income. Companies want a disposable, nomadic workforce that never puts down roots and can load their belongings into their car at a moment's notice. I'm strange in that I think it's a good idea for people to stick around, see their projects through, and get involved in the communities they live in. I know employer/employee loyalty is at an all-time low but it doesn't have to be. I think well-run companies that think long term (a minority, I know) don't really want a payroll full of mercenaries that they can't really count on. One of the best things that could happen through the tax code and accounting rules would be to encourage employment of FTEs over contractors. Right now, companies do everything they can to avoid hiring people because there's no incentive. If you made it so that retaining and paying employees is cheaper than a bunch of hired guns, lots of people would be much less stressed.

Re:Glad I'm retiring soon

[Anonymous Coward]

What about the wacko lunatics on the left? George Soros, the Clintons, Gates, etc.

Re:I'd be cool with this...

[fluffernutter]

What 'freedom' do you have in the US that you wouldn't have as a citizen of any other democratic wealthy nation? Freedom to go bankrupt if you get sick.