In the wake of the results of the Kingston University survey on freelancers, we get reactions and opinions from John Kell of the Professional Contractors Group and Nathan Pope of Latitude Hosting and the Brighton Farm.
Topics Covered:
#11: The growth in the Freelancer Marketplace - Fact or Fiction (Part 2): Play Now | Play in Popup | Download| Share and Enjoy: |
If you can’t imagine for 1 second how the credit crunch will win for us Freelancers then listen in.
This survey provides the proof of what is yet to come and if you are well placed, you’ll not only survive but be pretty damn successful!
There’s some useful information in these podcasts, but I found the speculation about change/growth particularly interesting too.
The two core figures seem to be the 4 million freelancers if you count virtually all self employed people and the 1.4 million if you take the narrrower definition. These shouldn’t come as a surprise, PCG’s former marketing advisor did some research in 2003 and identified that there were 4.3 million self employed or temporary workers and between 1 to 1.2 million freelancers.
My take on this is that the earlier research was remarkably good and that there’s been little change in the last 5 years. It’s great to see the numbers firmed up, but very dangerous to assume that they indicate some sort of growth on the contrary it would appear that the market has been surprisingly stable, given anecdotal evidence.