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#Leadership : The Future of Work- LinkedIn Data Shows More Cash-Strapped Millennials Turning To Part-Time Freelancing…The Ranks of Part-Time Freelancers are Swelling, Particularly Among Younger Workers in Expensive Cities.

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The number of U.S. workers with full-time jobs who freelance on the side is sharply on the rise.
Man at Computer with Boss

According to our data here at LinkedIn, the share of those users in our top professional fields has doubled in the past five years. What’s more, the number of people freelancing on the side of their day jobs is growing more than three times faster than the number of full-time freelancers on LinkedIn. Here’s why.

WHO, WHAT, WHERE . . .

Who are all these folks? To find out, we started by examining roughly 9,600 of LinkedIn’s ProFinder professionals. To be sure, that may be a self-selecting sample, and the way those users choose to respond to survey questions can vary based on professional, social, and regional culture, not to mention personal preference. (Not everyone thinks about freelance work the same way, for instance—some don’t even call it “freelancing.”) But because they’re vetted, qualified freelancers who have purposefully chosen to join the platform, they’re among the most committed independent workers in a gig economy that’s still very much in flux—which may make them the trendsetters to watch.

 

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In any event, we discovered some interesting patterns. For one thing, it’s clear that some people are more inclined than others to add part-time freelancing to their repertoires than others. We’ve noticed, too, that men are doing more part-time freelancing than women, and millennials are doing so more than any other age group.

Of all the users who list freelance work on their LinkedIn profiles, 20% have a full-time job in addition to their freelance business. That means full-time freelancing still dominates, but the side-gig model is quickly catching up. These are the top five industries for full-time professionals who freelance on the side:

  1. Financial services and insurance
  2. Professional services
  3. Technology and software
  4. Entertainment
  5. Staffing

. . . AND WHY

The reason is pretty obvious: extra income.

According to our data, a whopping 47% of professionals who are freelancing while working full-time are concentrated in six states with major urban populations: California, New York, Illinois, Texas, Massachusetts, and Florida. Since these professionals are living in some of the most expensive cities in the country, it’s not a wild hypothesis that they’re motivated, at least in part, by the need to bring in some extra cash.

According to a recent survey from Payoneer polling more than 23,000 freelancers in over 180 countries, the average freelancer charges around $21 an hour for their services. For those freelancing on the side who are able to squeeze in an extra 10–15 hours of client work each week, that can quickly add up to an additional $1,000 or more in discretionary income every month.

So for anyone whose main source of income isn’t keeping pace with their rising costs of living—a situation that describes many Americans yet varies widely from one state or region to the next—part-time freelancing may seem like an appealing option.

 

OTHER MOTIVATIONS THAT HINT AT WHAT’S COMING

That may not be the only motivation, though. Some other immediate benefits to taking on freelance work in addition to your day job include personal branding and networking. It can widen your exposure to different companies, types of work, and people. So if you’re deliberate about working with the type of clientele that will help push your career where you want it to go, you stand a better shot at gaining the clout—and client rolodex—to become the go-to person within your niche.

Part-time freelancers seem to understand this, especially millennials, many of whom have aspirations of making a full-time living as a freelancer. For many, side gigging, is meant to be a stepping stone. They recognize that it’s best to begin with a handful of clients to build their resumes and bulk up their portfolios before making the leap into full-time independent work at competitive rates.

Looking at the demographics of ProFinder professionals, we see a large proportion of full-time freelancers falling in the 45–59 age range. Those people have likely had long careers and built substantial networks in their industries before leaving their corporate jobs to go freelance full-time.

Faced with these patterns, it’s looking like traditional nine-to-five jobs may soon become relics of the past. As younger professionals enter the workforce, they’re gravitating more toward independent work—in many cases not just out of necessity but deliberately, with an eye toward the types of careers they want to pursue. In the meantime, it seems likely that the ranks of part-time freelancers will continue to swell—even if they don’t stay part-time for good.

 

FastCompany.com | GYANDA SACHDEVA  | 11.14.16 5:00 AM

Your #Career : Take These Three Steps At The First Sign That Layoffs Are Coming…A Layoff isn’t Necessarily a Catastrophe, Especially if you Can Snap into Action at the First Signs that Your Job May Be in Trouble.

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When someone from HR tapped me on the shoulder and invited me to join her for a private conversation, I knew what was coming. By the time I had my, “We think you’re great, but you need to exit the premises right now,” conversation, several former colleagues had already had the talk. In fact, two rounds of layoffs had preceded mine within the past 18 months or so.
Laid off Worker with Box

The first one didn’t affect my team directly. That meant it was relatively easy to ignore it and still spend the majority of my allotted stress-about-my-career-time reading studies stating that sitting at a desk all day was shaving years off my life.

The second round hit closer to home. Suddenly my solid job didn’t seem so solid. I responded by firing off a few applications for positions that looked okay, did a few interviews that went okay, and before long, settled back into the same old routine of doing my job.

This was a mistake. And I don’t mean I should’ve launched a massive job search at this point, because I truly believe getting laid off led me to make career choices that I never would’ve made otherwise. (And I’m certainly not the only person who feels that way.) But I do know that taking a few steps during this in-between time would’ve made that first unemployed week far less frightening.

So if you’re currently employed at an organization that feels a little shakier than you’d like it to feel (for the record, I like my companies to feel 0% shaky), I’d suggest taking these three simple steps.

1. START WARMING UP THE OLD NETWORK

You know what’s really un-fun after losing your job (besides having to think about what sad half-eaten stale snacks the person packing up your desk is finding in your drawer)? Sending awkward, “I just got laid off, know any openings?” emails to people you haven’t spoken to in a while.

You know what’s less awkward? Sending notes to those same people sans the scent of desperation.

For example, I wish I’d sent a message like this to a few old colleagues after the first round of layoffs at my company:

Hi,

How are you doing? That campaign you shared on LinkedIn last week looked really awesome. But you always were the graphics wizard at the office. I’m starting to think about making a job move and I’d love to grab a drink and talk about your experience working at Company X.

I’m free most nights after 7 p.m., let me know if any work for you in the next few weeks or two.

Looking forward to catching up,
Jenni

Meeting for coffees while you’re still employed doesn’t just make it less awkward to send out follow-up emails if you do actually lose your job. But it also means your conversation won’t just be a pity party full of inspirational quotes that leave you both repeating tired mantras about silver linings and turning lemons into lemonade. Instead, you’ll remind people why you’re so awesome. That way, if the worst happens, they’ll be far more eager to help you out in the way of leads and references.

 

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2. UPDATE YOUR RESUME AND LINKEDIN PROFILE

Ugh, I know. You were totally hoping that I wouldn’t say “resume.” But trust me when I say that spending a leisurely Saturday afternoon bringing yours up to speed is far less stressful than doing it in a hurry after losing your job because your cousin just sent you an opening that’s filling up so fast.

Plus, it’s much easier to remember your impressive accomplishments andquantify your bullet points when you have access to your files and inbox. Because it’s actually really hard to figure out exactly how many users you helped the website acquire when you can’t see the internal company spreadsheet that lays out the month-to-month growth oh-so-nicely.

Not to mention, you’ll be less likely to come up with bullet points like “Grew Facebook by 4 billion users, not that those selfish idiots appreciated it” if you’re in a good place mentally.

3. CREATE A BUDGET

First, I recommended you update your resume, then I asked you to create a budget. I know—I’m the worst. But hear me out. When you go from making any amount of money to none overnight, it’s really (really!) scary. And even if you have emergency savings for times just like this, it’s still a little nerve-wracking to actually start transferring those funds out. (Trust me, the moment when you have to do this, you’ll realize that you always assumed “emergency fund” was just a shorter way to say, “My life is together because I have an emergency fund, so I’ll never have to touch this.”)

Here’s what I suggest: Figure out how you spend your money each month. That’s it. Right now, you don’t need to change a thing when it comes to your spending habits. And tell you what, you can figure this out in any which way you like. Personally, I love Mint, but there are lots of budgeting apps out there. And if you don’t trust apps with your confidential information, people also swear by Excel.

Why do you need to do this? Because if you do find yourself unemployed, you’re going to very quickly need to make changes to your lifestyle. And it’ll be far easier (and therefore, way less anxiety-provoking) if you can determine right away what can be cut out. While the dinners and the drinks are obvious, it’s often the small things that will surprise you when you see how you spend your budget.

I waited until the very end to tell you the best part of taking these three steps. And it’s the fact that even if you never get laid off, they’ll only benefit you. Unless, of course, you’ve met the one person in the world who trudges around town, ruing that Saturday she spent updating her resume.

This article originally appeared on The Daily Muse and is reprinted with permission.

 

 FastCompany.com | JENNI MAIER, THE MUSE 09.30.16 5:00 AM

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