The Creative Group, a division of staffing company Robert Half International that's focused on placing creative and marketing talent, recently conducted a study on freelance creatives.
They found employers of creative freelancers think the talent pool of this group has improved. 74% of the of advertising and marketing executives interviewed said it has improved (43%) or significantly improved (31%) ov er the last 5 years.
Two other findings caught my eye:
1. Respondents cited "access to specialized skills or knowledge" as the greatest benefit of using freelancers.
2. 49% of advertising and marketing executives said it's likely they would work as independent professionals at some point in their career.
This is consistent with what we're seeing in our research. A few years ago cost would have been listed as the top reason for hiring freelancers - and it still is for many job categories.
But over the last 5 years or so hiring companies have realized access to specialized talent and business flexibility are the key reasons for hiring freelancers. Cost, while still important, is no longer the main reason.
We're also seeing spending time as a freelancer is becoming more common in a wide variety of industries. This is a major shift in career paths.
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