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More than 6,000 US-based freelancers responded to a new in-depth survey. I dug through the data and pulled out the most interesting insights, which paint a picture of optimistic professionals who have taken control of their own destiny.
超过6,000名美国自由职业者对新的深度调查做出了回应。 我仔细研究了数据并得出了最有趣的见解,这些见解描绘了乐观的专业人员掌握了自己的命运。
This could be in part because the organizations who sponsored the study — The Freelancers Union and the freelancer marketplace Upwork — have a vested interest in making freelancing look good. So take these numbers with a grain of salt.
这可能部分是因为赞助这项研究的组织-自由职业者联盟和自由职业者市场Upwork-对使自由职业看起来更好具有既得利益。 因此,将这些数字加上一粒盐。
自由职业者现在占美国劳动力的三分之一。 (Freelancers are now one third of the US workforce.)
You read that right. I double-checked this figure with the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, and it is indeed accurate.
您没看错。 我向美国劳工统计局仔细检查了这个数字,确实是准确的。
Let’s break the 55 million people who did some freelance work over the past 12 months down by the type of work they’re doing:
让我们将过去12个月从事自由职业的5500万员工的工作类型细分如下:
35% are Independent contractors. They may work for a company — like Uber — but they do so in contractual capacity, and are not technically employees.
35%是独立承包商。 他们可能会为Uber这样的公司工作,但他们是以合同身份工作的,而且从技术上讲不是雇员。
28% are diversified workers — people who work full-time jobs but also do side gigs for extra cash, such as photographing weddings.
28%是多元化的工人 ,这些工人既从事全职工作,又做些零工赚钱,例如拍婚纱照。
25% are moonlighters. They work full-time and also take on additional projects outside of their job that use the same skill set. Think of a designer who works full-time at a product company, then does client work for friends on the weekend.
25%是月光者 。 他们全职工作,并且在工作之外还承担其他使用相同技能的项目。 想想一位设计师,他在一家产品公司专职工作,然后在周末为客户做客户工作。
7% are temporary workers who are working on short-term assignments, often through a staffing agency.
7%是临时工作的人,他们通常通过人事中介机构从事短期任务。
7% are freelance business owners. Depending on their level of expertise, reputation, and sales skills, they may earn substantially more money than their full time employee counterparts.
7%是自由职业者 。 根据他们的专业知识水平,声誉和销售技巧,他们可能比全职员工赚得多得多的钱。
Freelancers tend to be slightly younger than the rest of the workforce, but are otherwise demographically similar. They have the same educational background — 40% have at least a bachelor’s degree — and the same ratio of women to men.
自由职业者往往比其他劳动力年龄年轻一些,但在人口统计学上相似。 他们具有相同的教育背景-40%的人至少具有学士学位-男女比例相同。
自由职业者每年产生1万亿美元的经济活动。 (Freelancers generate $1 trillion in economic activity each year.)
Half of all freelancers went so far as to say that “there is no amount of money that would get [them] to take a traditional job and stop freelancing.”
所有自由职业者中有一半甚至说“没有钱让他们从事传统工作并停止自由职业。”
Full-time freelancers work an average of 36 hours per week. That’s a lot less than the 47 hour work-week of average working Americans.
专职自由职业者每周平均工作36个小时。 这比美国人平均每周工作47小时要少得多。
79% of them say freelancing is better than a traditional job. And 63% of them freelance because they want to — up from 53% just two years ago.
79%的人说自由职业比传统工作要好。 其中63%的人是自由职业者,因为他们愿意这样做,而两年前这一比例为53%。
More than half of freelancers who left a full time job now make more money than they did before. Less than a third of them took a pay cut when they started freelancing.
现在,超过半数的自由职业者辞去了全职工作,赚的钱比以前更多。 他们开始自由职业时,只有不到三分之一的人减薪。
Most freelancers find work through their own personal networks.
大多数自由职业者通过自己的个人网络找到工作。
Almost half of freelancers saw increased demand in the past year, and only 9% saw a reduction. As a result, half of all freelancers raised their rates last year, and most of them plan to raise them again in the coming year.
在过去的一年中,几乎有一半的自由职业者看到需求增加,只有9%的自由职业者减少了需求。 结果,去年所有自由职业者中有一半提高了薪资水平,其中大多数人计划在来年再次提高薪资水平。
Here are their self-reported reasons why they’re able to charge so much:
这是他们能够如此收费的自我报告原因:
Freelancers are optimistic about the future. Most of them believe that the perception of freelancing as a career is improving. And a vast majority of them feel like their best opportunities are ahead of them.
自由职业者对未来感到乐观。 他们中的大多数人认为,自由职业是一种职业的观念正在改善。 他们中的绝大多数人都觉得自己最好的机会就在眼前。
自由职业是其自身的全部技能 (Freelancing is an entire skill set of its own)
I’ve worked as a freelance web developer. Actually doing the work is the easy part.
我曾担任自由网络开发人员。 实际上,工作是容易的部分。
The real challenge lies in finding reasonable clients, convincing them you’re a reasonable choice, then convincing them to enter into a reasonable contract with you.
真正的挑战在于找到合理的客户,说服他们是您的合理选择,然后说服他们与您签订合理的合同。
If you want to succeed as a freelancer, it’s not enough to merely be good at what you do. You also need to be a good freelancer.
如果您想以自由职业者的身份取得成功,仅仅仅仅擅长于自己的工作还远远不够。 您还需要成为一名优秀的自由职业者。
One skill everyone should learn — especially freelancers — is how to better persuade people.
每个人(尤其是自由职业者)都应该学习的一项技巧是如何更好地说服人们。
I’ve read a lot of books about developing sales skills, most of which were more motivational than practical.
我读过很多有关发展销售技巧的书,其中大多数书比实际更具激励性。
By far the best-researched and most actionable book I’ve read on the topic is Daniel Pink’s “To Sell is Human”:
到目前为止,我读过的关于该主题的研究最深入,最可行的书是丹尼尔·平克(Daniel Pink)的“以人为本出售”:
To Sell Is Human: The Surprising Truth about Moving OthersA fresh look at the art and science of selling.amzn.to
卖人是人类:搬家的惊人真相 重新看待出售的艺术和科学。 amzn.to
You might also enjoy The Freelancer Show, a long-running podcast hosted by freelance developers. They’ve covered a wide range of topics, such as this episode where they discuss how to avoid agreeing to deadlines when some aspects of a project are outside of your control.
您可能还会喜欢Freelancer Show,这是由自由开发人员主持的长期播客。 他们涵盖了广泛的主题,例如这一集 ,他们讨论了当项目的某些方面超出您的控制范围时,如何避免同意最后期限。
If you have time and are curious, the full results of the 2016 Freelancer Survey are here.
如果您有时间并且好奇,可以在这里查看 2016年自由职业者调查的全部结果。
I only write about programming and technology. If you follow me on Twitter I won’t waste your time. ?
我只写关于编程和技术的文章。 如果您在Twitter上关注我,我不会浪费您的时间。 ?
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