Upwork ($UPWK) and Freelancers Union today released the results of “Freelancing in America: 2018” (FIA), the most comprehensive measure of the U.S. independent workforce. The fifth annual study estimates that 56.7 million Americans freelance, an increase of 3.7 million in the past five years. Full study results are available here.
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Upwork and Freelancers Union released the results of "Freelancing in America: 2018" (FIA), the most comprehensive measure of the U.S. independent workforce. The fifth annual study estimates that 56.7 million Americans freelance, an increase of 3.7 million in the past five years. (Graphic: Business Wire)
The five most notable findings reveal:
“The Freelancing in America survey remains a touchstone for anyone interested in a true measure of freelance work in the U.S. today,” said Louis Hyman, Director of the Institute for Workplace Studies at the Cornell University School of Industrial and Labor Relations in New York. “As a collaboration between Upwork and Freelancers Union, it is an interpretation from both sides of the client-freelancer relationship. Freelancing in America asks questions about workers' lives in a more in-depth way than any other survey does. Digging behind simple statistics, the survey asks the questions that we actually care about.”
“Freelancers play a critical role in our economy and in shaping the future of work,” said Stephane Kasriel, President and CEO of Upwork. “Despite an economic boom, which has created a record number of full-time, 9-to-5 job openings, Americans are increasingly choosing to freelance. At the same time, technology is freeing people from the archaic time and place work constraints that are no longer necessary for today's mostly knowledge-based work. This year’s results reveal that most workers prioritize lifestyle over earnings but freelancers are much more likely to actually attain the life they want. Professionals with the most in-demand skills will therefore increasingly choose to freelance.”
"The 2018 Freelancing in America report demonstrates the remarkable growth of the freelance workforce over the past five years," said Caitlin Pearce, Executive Director of Freelancers Union. "Freelancers are the backbone of our economy but this crucial segment of America's workforce faces unique challenges, including access to affordable healthcare and workforce development training to update skills in a competitive environment. They're more politically active than the general population, and they're looking for policymakers to take notice."
Additional findings include:
Quantifying freelancing: Growth over time
Training: Workforce readiness in the face of rapid change
Understanding the freelancing lifestyle: Drivers and barriers
Freelancers could be key this election
Looking ahead
About Freelancing in America: 2018
To see further insights, please visit here for access to the full results deck and other materials. The study is conducted by independent research firm Edelman Intelligence. 6,001 U.S. working adults over the age of 18 were surveyed for it online between June 21, 2018 - July 12, 2018. Of those, 2,100 were freelancers and 3,901 were non-freelancers. Results are weighted to ensure demographic representation in line with the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics’ 2018 Labor Force Statistics from the Current Population Survey and the American Community Survey. The study has an overall margin of error of ±1.2% at the 95% level of confidence.
About Upwork
Upwork is the largest global freelancing website. It enables businesses to find and work with highly skilled freelancers. As an increasingly connected and independent workforce goes online, knowledge work—like software, shopping and content before it—is shifting online as well. This shift is making it easier for clients to connect and work with talent in near real-time and is freeing professionals everywhere from having to work at a set time and place. Our company’s mission is to create economic opportunities so people have better lives.
Upwork is headquartered in Mountain View, Calif., with offices in San Francisco and Chicago. For more information, visit our website at www.upwork.com, join us on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.
About Freelancers Union
Freelancers Union is the largest and fast-growing organization representing the millions of independent workers across the country. It gives its 400,000 members a voice through policy advocacy, benefits, and community. Since its founding, Freelancers Union has fought for and won protections for freelance workers, including Unincorporated Business Tax reform and successfully advocating for new models for health care. In 2016, Freelancers Union led a victorious campaign to enact first-of-its kind legislation in New York City giving freelancers unprecedented protections from nonpayment. Learn more at www.freelancersunion.org.
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Upwork
Shoshana Deutschkron
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or
Freelancers
Union
Nathan Bransford
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