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by drawkbox 2782 days ago
True, but that trickle growth over time has led to a large chunk of the US who are freelancing.

> "More than one in three (35%) Americans freelanced this year."

1/3 of the country freelancing at some point is massive, especially since the internet is really only about 2 decades old in terms of being able to, including the late 90s.

That is a huge market and probably going to end up 1/2 or 2/3 of the country over the next decade [1].

Plus, younger people are freelancing more so a massive growth wave is coming to freelancing: 16-21 is at 47%, 22-34 is at 43%, 35-44 is at 35%, 45-54 is 28% and 55+ is 28% [2]

[1] https://www.upwork.com/press/2017/10/17/freelancing-in-ameri...

[2] https://www.statista.com/chart/10981/freelancers-in-america/
2 comments
ghaff 2782 days ago
Freelancing in the sense of filing a 1099-MISC has a very low threshold. In addition to the "gig economy," there are royalties, rent collection as landlords, selling on eBay/Amazon, other online businesses, etc. It is pretty common for even professionals these days to have some side business that triggers the very low threshold to be officially "freelancing." As I said in another comment, I suspect I've "freelanced" far more than I haven't in the course of my career even though I've never had a serious side income and I suspect that's pretty common even for people who aren't Turking or driving for Uber.
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refurb 2782 days ago
People can hold a fully time job and freelance on the side.
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walshemj 2782 days ago
Not with most developed countries employment laws and standard employment contracts with out their employers permission.
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ghaff 2782 days ago
Freelancing in the sense of filing a 1099-MISC is quite common.

If you're a landlord, you'll be filing a 1099-MISC

Essentially any royalties, 1099-MISC

Have any sort of side business even if wholly unrelated to your job, 1099-MISC.

You get into any actual consulting work and, yes, it becomes more problematic with many companies, but still many do it.

I've very much been a full-time employee for essentially all of my career, and I've probably filed 1099-MISCs most years for one thing or another even without having been a landlord.

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refurb 2781 days ago
Meh... they could drive a few hours on the weekend and they’d be counted as a freelancer. I don’t see many employers cracking down on that.
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