The Challenges of Being in the New Contract Workforce
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Re: The Challenges of Being in the New Contract Workforce
#2People who use Uber, AirBnB, Deliveroo and similar companies are only fuelling this race to the bottom. Maybe one day it will catch up to them, and then it will be too late. Use your leverage while you still have it, Comrades.
Re: The Challenges of Being in the New Contract Workforce
#3There are pros and cons depending on your personal situation. Having that workforce profile can be liberating if you have the right skill set to keep you on track and organized. The freelance/GIG economy has a lot to offer not only younger workers but veteran workers looking to add more tools to their toolbox.
https://latechnews.org/los-angeles-gig-economy/
Re: The Challenges of Being in the New Contract Workforce
#4Good (edit: in the long run). The services they list, like health insurance, retirement, or pensions, should be decoupled from your employer.
Re: The Challenges of Being in the New Contract Workforce
#5> Within a decade, contractors and freelancers could make up half of the American workforce.
This is pretty shocking to me. With recent trends you can easily see that the other half of the population will be people in IT and health care (home service providers, nurses, etc.)
I've never had a contract job, I'm not sure if part-time college jobs count, are contract employees getting work via an agency or are they on their own? If these agencies exist are they helping to negotiate on behalf of their workers?
It feels like there is space for a digital employment agency, there must be a way to combine the "flexibility" of contract work with the longer term cushion that comes with a full time job.
Re: The Challenges of Being in the New Contract Workforce
#6Good (edit: in the long run). The services they list, like health insurance, retirement, or pensions, should be decoupled from your employer.
Ideally they would be coupled to our government, but since they aren't providing that, our employers should be obligated to ensure they are providing us with the means to keep ourselves healthy.
Re: The Challenges of Being in the New Contract Workforce
#7> Within a decade, contractors and freelancers could make up half of the American workforce. This is pretty shocking to me. With recent trends you can easily see that the other half of the population will be people in IT and health care (home service providers, nurses, etc.) I've never had a contract job, I'm not sure if part-time college jobs count, are contract employees getting work via an agency or are they on th…
I've been freelance for decades. Recently I got a gig thru an agency, but only because the corp I'm doing work for has an onerous 'qualified vendor' hurdle I don't have the resources to pass.
So all of it exists, as it surely would in an efficient market!
Re: The Challenges of Being in the New Contract Workforce
#8Employer "benefits" are things that are all freely available a la carte. There's no reason contractors can't buy health insurance from a marketplace or contribute to an IRA and wind up with the same end result. You as a contractor just have to factor those additional costs in to your decision-making process when evaluating compensation packages.
Re: The Challenges of Being in the New Contract Workforce
#9Good (edit: in the long run). The services they list, like health insurance, retirement, or pensions, should be decoupled from your employer.
Ideally they would be coupled to our government, but since they aren't providing that, our employers should be obligated to ensure they are providing us with the means to keep ourselves healthy.
We should be able to get health insurance and bargain based on community groups or individually tax-free rather than by employer. If the entire Mormon church could collective bargain for health insurance for its members it would be WAY cheaper than any employer
(because they don't drink alcohol or smoke).
Re: The Challenges of Being in the New Contract Workforce
#10Keep this in mind when looking at the government's monthly job reports. We've set the wrong metric, so while unemployment may be low the power that would normally flow to workers from a tight job market doesn't exist here.
“We find that 94% of net job growth in the past decade was in the alternative work category,” said Krueger. “And over 60% was due to the [the rise] of independent contractors, freelancers and contract company workers.” In other words, nearly all of the 10 million jobs created between 2005 and 2015 were not traditional nine-to-five employment.
https://qz.com/851066/almost-all-the-10-million-jobs-created...