The freelance economy is complex and ever-changing, but one thing is certain — freelancers are now a thriving force that is changing the way businesses hire.
According to a new landmark survey commissioned by Elance-oDesk and Freelancers Union, there are more than 53 million freelance workers in the U.S. alone. That’s about 34 percent of the entire workforce.
Many small business owners work as freelancers, essentially self-employed independent contractors who provide services for much larger companies. Many of these freelancers even incorporate just like other small businesses. A huge variety of government agencies, companies, and organizations, hire small businesses for jobs that can vary from small, part-time projects to long-term, full-time projects.
Seeking to help freelancers to easily find freelance work, FlexJobs, a popular freelance site, has released a list of the top 30 companies hiring freelancers. The company analyzed thousands of freelance job listings during the period between August 1, 2015, and October 31, 2015.
While at a glance, the list may not necessarily contain companies commonly thought of as hiring freelancers, it is, however, a helpful starting place for small business owners and freelancers who may never have considered going after larger companies for freelance work.
The companies on the list are from a range of industries, including technology, education, communications, healthcare, research, and marketing, with BBC Worldwide coming in at the top.
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There are also a wide range of jobs available ranging from producers, publicists, project managers, analysts, writers, script researchers, and more.
“The world of work is changing, as professionals challenge the traditional nine to five office paradigm and as businesses more and more seek out the growing talent pool of freelance workers,” Sara Sutton Fell, Founder and CEO of FlexJobs, said in a News9 post. “As this list demonstrates, companies of all sizes and familiarity are leveraging the freelance job market and both they and the freelancers are benefiting from this work arrangement.”
Below is the complete list containing the 30 top companies hiring freelancers, as identified by FlexJobs:
- BBC Worldwide
- Haynes & Company
- Carolinas HealthCare System
- LiveOps
- Razorfish
- Edmentum
- CompuCom Systems Inc.
- Creative Circle
- Advanced Clinical
- FocusKPI Inc.
- Judge Group
- Calian
- CyraCom
- VMware
- Rover.com
- About.com
- LanguageLine Solutions
- CACTUS Communications
- Hollister
- Havenly
- Achieve Test Prep
- Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
- Isobar
- CleverTech
- Axelon Services
- Intel
- Kaplan
- Overland Solutions
- US-Reports
- GoPro
Image: Small Business Trends
While the freelancing world offers a lot of opportunities, there is always a limit. The thing is the competition can get quite tough. But I guess it cannot be prevented.