America, say goodbye to the Era of Big Work
For much of the past century, the Era of Big Work — the 40-hour workweek and its employer-provided benefits — were the foundation of our economy. That was then. Now, independent work is the new normal.
Freelancers, independent contractors and temp workers are on their way to making up the majority of the U.S. labor force. They number 42 million, or one-third of all workers in the nation. That figure is expected to rise to 40% — some 60 million people — by the end of the decade.
A number of factors both economic and cultural are causing the independent workforce to swell. Technological advances and globalization have greatly contributed to the erosion of traditional work arrangements. The private sector's need for speed and adaptability is increasingly incompatible with maintaining a large, full-time workforce. And of course, the Great Recession has put to rest the notion that there is such a thing as a stable full-time job.
It's true that many have been forced into this brave new world of freelance work by external factors. But many are getting into it by choice because independent work aligns with a paradigm shift in values that is happening both at work and in the marketplace.
http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-horowitz-work-freelancers-20140826-story.html
Maybe I'm just getting old, but a workforce that's 40% temporary workers and independent contractors by 2020 is unsettling.
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Nowhere in our natural history is a convention of working long hours.
In healthy communities there was some hunting, some gathering, and a lot of family time.
Job security wasn't even a concern, everyone contributed because that's what you did until you grew old, at which time you might spend more time with the young ones.
