Panel Paper:
Shifting Work Cultures and the Rise of the Freelance Economy
Saturday, March 30, 2019
Butler Pavilion - Butler Board Room (American University)
*Names in bold indicate Presenter
Shifting politico-economic landscapes, the rise of automation in today’s industries, and rapid changes in the usage of convenience and communication technology in daily life are leading to transformations in the workplace and the way current and future members of the labor force approach their professional lives. By 2025, it is predicted that more than half the working population will be comprised of the generations known commonly as “Millennials” and “Gen Z”, that is, those born between 1980 and 1995 and those born between 1996 and 2010 respectively. This coming labor force has experienced the Great Recession and in the case of the older Millennials, the crash of the dot com bubble, and this, combined with the rise of technology in their early childhoods, is reshaping the view held by previous generations surrounding permanence with a single employer or job. As such, the rigid definition of professional work is beginning to change, with an unprecedented rise in freelance work and the “gig economy”, with workers moving between jobs or taking on supplementary employment in addition to a traditional day job. This paper aims to explore the root causes and circumstances of the rise in the increasingly large freelance working space and the division of this access to freelance work by geography, skills and profession.
Based on data collected by the Brooking’s Institute and other sources, as well as work by Sarah Kessler and Jeremy Rifkin, this paper is divided into three parts examining the social and economic backgrounds of the new entrants into the labor force, the present resources and circumstances that give rise to their working habits and finally, the effects these flexible approaches to work have on the labor and business market and on future government policies relating to employment.
