When companies tighten their proverbial belts in a time of economic crisis, employment is the first to go haywire. In the U.S. alone, 4.4 million jobs are said to have been lost. In this time of recession, full-time employment has become a shaky concept.

Based on a recent survey, companies are now outsourcing more tasks and functions, as well as trying out outsourcing on previously unoutsourced business function component (28.5%). Recession has brought forth the replacement of regular employees with contractors or contractual work during the last year. The same survey records this figure at 14.6%. Corollarily, 14.5% have opted to avail of contractual work, thus giving temporary employment to those disadvantaged even more by the economic crisis.

In the U.S. today, and largely due to the economic crisis, US-based companies have started to take more advantage of the proliferation of freelance talent, and farming out jobs. Many of those unemployed since last year have turned to freelancing for economic purposes, as well as to enjoy the advantage of the ‘work anywhere’ freelance culture. Thus, the freelance economy in the country is enjoying an unprecedented boom. After all, business must always be as usual.

Would America adopt the freelance and contractual practice even after the recession is over? Some things grow in the dark.

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Via oDesk blog