Workplace

More workers are now freelancing, as companies streamline their operations and unemployed professionals hunt for work, said Jessica Dickler in CNNmoney.com. Freelancers now account for 26 percent of the working population, versus 19 percent in 2006, according to human resources consulting firm Kelly Services Inc. The arrangement is ideal for companies that don’t want to commit to salaried employees. But “freelance workers are vulnerable during down times.” They’re responsible for lining up health care, nagging clients for payment, and paying their taxes quarterly rather than having them withheld.

Many who joined the self-employed out of necessity now wouldn’t have it any other way, said Sarah Needleman in The Wall Street Journal. After losing her job a year ago, Rebecca Haden started shopping her search-engine optimization skills. Now she earns double her previous income, “and I just do the fun stuff,” she says. Where freelancing was once the realm of computer programmers and graphic designers, the new breed of freelancers does everything from accounting to marketing. In the past, freelancers spent a good deal of their day selling themselves to prospective clients. Now sites such as Elance.com and Odesk.com match workers with assignments.

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