60M Americans Will Go Freelance by 2020

If you haven’t already heard about it, over the last couple months 10x Management has worked hard to compile some data regarding the growth rate of demand for tech jobs, estimates for the number of people seeking freelance jobs, and the number of hours wasted by full-time employees on various activities throughout the week (time wasted on meetings, water cooler talk, and yes…the hours wasted on playing ping-pong) and much more. We compiled some of that data into real-time live counters as part of an easy to read infographic. Thinking long and hard about what to call the infographic we decided to dubb it, the – W2 Time Bomb.

Let us explain, with the data that we uncovered: the fact that by 2020, over 60 million Americans will be operating as freelance workers. And during that same period, it’s estimated that 2.2 million new tech jobs will be created, it will leave a huge gap in available full-time workers. This means that a significant number of companies will be forced to hire freelance workers, and with our wide-range of experience working with tech freelancers it’s a growing concern that only 50% of American companies are set-up to on-board and manage them correctly.

“The numbers are striking,” says Rishon Blumberg, our cofounder of 10x Management. “If U.S. companies want to continue to have access to the most talented tech developers, designers and other technologists, they will have no choice but to hire freelancers.” “It’s clear that the tech companies that are experts at bringing freelancers into their workflow will have a competitive advantage in the coming years,” says Rishon.

Some of our key findings by the team:

15 to 20 million people will leave the full-time workforce in the next 5 years to become freelancers
2.2 million new tech jobs will be created in that same time
W-2 full-time tech workers waste literally billions of hours each year in meetings, ping-pong, etc.
50% of U.S. companies are not ready to take on freelance workers

For more interesting stats and to view the real-time counters, check out the W2 Time Bomb.

Interested in learning more about how your company can effectively on-board and manage freelancers – download our free ebook.

America’s Freelance Revolution
60 Million U.S. Workers Will Go Freelance by 2020

Hiring technical talent doesn't have to be painful.

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