Before the industrial revolution, 90% of people were self-employed, predominantly in farming. As factory jobs increased, offering higher wage rates, workers eagerly moved from their low-paying, hard labor farming jobs to the higher paying factory jobs. By 1890, the number of non-farm workers had overtaken the number of farmers in the U.S. [1]

With 83% of millennials claiming that freelancing is a cornerstone of their career strategy[2] and the dramatic increase in funding of crowdsourcing-centric companies, could we be facing a 21st-century industrial revolution? A workforce shift this substantial has not been seen in 100 years and an Intuit report predicts 60 million people will be contingent workers by 2020. [3] It’s clear that the future of work is changing.

Is working independently or freelancing an important part of your career strategy?[2]

Working at one company for 20 to 30 years is no longer the norm. Millennials are less concerned about job security or full-time employment, and more concerned about flexibility, adaptability and variety. They are leaving the full-time workforce to piece together a career path on their own. And, as Marcus Shingles from Deloitte Consulting puts it, it’s the democratization of technology that enables them to do this and is spurring this entrepreneurial renaissance.

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Astro Teller from Google [x] says “The smartest people in the world don’t work for your company.” So, how do you get them? They are somewhere in the crowd. Because of technology and the workforce shift to freelancing, thousands of companies are using collaboration platforms or crowdsourcing models to get work done and access more workers, supplementing their core staff with online talent who lends skills and knowledge just-in-time.

Gigwalk knows the future of work is changing, both on the employee and employers’ side. With the largest mobile connected workforce, Gigwalk is uniquely positioned to support this shift, connecting the right people with the right work, anytime, anywhere. Gigwalk’s mobile platform enables businesses to better manage their distributed teams and provides access to our on-demand workforce in the areas they need them most, replacing guesswork with real-time intelligence about on-the-ground operations and execution. The future of work is changing and Gigwalk is part of that change, making work better.

1. “What Caused the Industrial Revolution,” Investopedia, http://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/042015/what-caused-american-industrial-revolution.asp
2. “The Millennial Survey,” Elance, May 2011, https://www.elance.com/q/millennial-contractor-survey.html
3. “Intuit 2020 Report,” Intuit, October 2010, http://http-download.intuit.com/http.intuit/CMO/intuit/futureofsmallbusiness/intuit_2020_report.pdf