Getting lost in the various debates around the "gig economy" is the size and growth of the segment of independent workers who provide professional services to businesses.
As the chart below from the HBR's Your Company Needs Independent Workers shows, the number of U.S. independent workers serving businesses has grown from 4.5 million in 2011 to 6.4 million in 2015.
This is about 3 times as fast as overall employment growth during this period.
This group also dwarfs the number of people working for the various on-demand/gig economy companies such as Uber, Task Rabbit, etc. that focus on consumers.
A recent Brooking report, A Proposal for Modernizing Labor Laws for Twenty-First-Century Work: The “Independent Worker, suggests there are only about 600,000 Americans doing this type of work.
Not only large in number, the professionals serving businesses are also relatively well compensated.
According to research conducted as part of the 2015 MBO Partners State of Independence study this group has a medium income slightly above $70,000 and 1.3 million make more than $100,000.
Despite the size of this group and their growing importance as a source of talent for businesses large and small, this group doesn't get the press that Uber drivers and other gig economy workers get.
But we'll be covering them in detail again in 2016.
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