According to Monash University's 2012 IPro Index, white collar independent professionals are both happy and productive. Or at least they in Australia, where the study was conducted.
IPro is their term for independent professional. They surveyed 346 IPros as part of this study and found that:
- 88% are very satisfied working as an IPro; only 9% were unsatisfied
- 89% are proud of the work they do
- 84% are enthusiastic about their job
Alert readers will notice these numbers are very close to the results we found in the 2012 State of Independence study, which looked at independent workers in the U.S.
Also similar are some of the reasons Australians become IPros:
- 79% said sense of freedom
- 69% said flexible hours
Both of these are, again, very close to what we found here in the U.S. (click here for a summary)
One really interesting data point was on earning more money as an independent worker. The Australian IPro report found that 79% or their respondents said "earn more money" was a reason for going independent. We found only 47% of U.S. independent worker respondents listed "earn more money" as a reason for being independent.
However, 79% of U.S. independent workers who earn more than $100,000 said "earn more money" was one of the reasons they are independent.
Based on our review of the IPro study, their respondent pool seems to map pretty closely to our independent worker respondents who earned more than $100,000. This makes sense, given the IPro study looked at white collar contractors.
The bottom line is a growing number of studies - both here in the U.S. and from other countries - are consistently showing that independent workers are satisfied and engaged with their work.
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