Major corporations are leaning on freelancers now more than ever before to help keep fixed costs down and avoid mass layoffs. That's according to Shannon Denton, co-founder of Wripple, a platform that matches companies with vetted freelancers in real time. Denton's coined this period the "freelancer economy," a trend in which corporate America is embracing independent workers more than before to help with a variety of tasks like designing their website or plan events.
SURGE IN US SMALL BUSINESSES STARTED AS SIDE HUSTLES In the American Opportunity Survey , 36% of respondents who were employed, which is equivalent to 58 million Americans when extrapolated from the representative sample, identified themselves as independent workers. That's a notable increase from 2016 when 27% of the employed population said they were independent workers.