Dive Brief:

• According to the Associated Press, employers looking for help might want to starting re-thinking the traditional 9-to-5 job stocked with full-time employees.
• Today's younger talent finds it less risky to look for alternatives to the tradition full-time model, as hurdles such as affordable health insurance coverage, which kept many workers at more traditional jobs, is much more accessible because of the Affordable Care Act.
• Also, employers finally are getting used to the idea of hiring freelancers and independent contractors. The AP article says many employers even say independent workers bring fresh ideas without the long-term commitment.

Dive Insight:

Can it be that this long-discussed trend is finally ready to take off?

According to Allison Hemming, CEO of New York staffing company The Hired Guns, employers have come a long way from the when she launched her company 15 years ago. Back then employers would say, “if they were that good they would have a job.” But today, she says, the "concept of freelancers as slackers is completely over."

The statistics bear out the growing trend. In 2013, the U.S. Census Bureau reported 23 million people as self-employed (and with no employees working for them), a 1.2% increase from 2012 and a 24% rise from 2003, according to the article.

Michael Balay, vice president of strategy and business development at food giant Cargill, hires independent contractors with specialized skills to manage projects, such as combining groups of workers inside the company. “It cuts the search and qualification time down,” Balay says in the article. “It’s way easier now.”