Are Things Really THIS Desperate for Freelancers?

Jim Lehrer's News Hour recently ran a piece about how, in a time of unemployment, layoffs and high insecurity about job security in general, the freelance sector is growing. And becoming more competitive.

Since employers can't afford employees, but need people to get work done, they're using freelancers instead. Meanwhile, many former employees are becoming freelancers, often for the very same folks who once employed them. Sometimes this can lead to rather fast and loose usage of the term "freelancer," something the Freelancers Union is highly sensitive about.

But this segment from the News Hour is about increased competition among freelancers.

Check out the video. See what you think.

Man, they make the situation sound dire. Are things really that bad? Are freelancers really in such cut-throat competition for work?

The issue of undercutting fees is raised. How much of that is due to overseas competition? How much of it comes from people who do fast and sloppy work?

And the Freelancers Union is mentioned prominently. (They're probably the ones who pitched the story. Just speculating, mind you, but it isn't the first time I've seen them featured in stories on this subject.) The union would like to make sure freelancers aren't abused or treated as de facto employees who lack the proper employee benefits, simply because they've been labeled freelancers.

So . . . are things really so desperate for freelancers? I don't know. I suspect that, once a few of these freelancers get past the initial siren song of making their own hours, as well as ditching the dress code, office politics and commute, they may find that freelancing is hardly an easy row to hoe.

How many of these fresh freelance candidates can effectively market themselves? And, having marketed, how many are able to close a sale?

I submit these particular talents are as important as (if not more so than) the ability to write or do whatever it is you do for a living.



Bottom line: I think the increased competition among freelancers (to the extent it really exists) will be a war of attrition won by those who decided to be freelancers long before the recession started. And I'm feeling pretty good about the prospects for those of us who are into it for the long-haul. We'll be the ones left standing, after the wouldbes and wannabes flee from freelancing into the "safety" of another employment situation.