Long-term jobless becoming independent contractors

Nationally and locally, the numbers are soaring: The long-term unemployed are going into business for themselves as independent contractors, cobbling together brand-new, Brand You careers.

As Charles Russell, a Web application developer who was laid off by Yahoo in 2008, likes to put it, if no one else is hiring, you might as well hire yourself.

"I hear recruiters say that they're hearing more noises about hiring now," said Russell, 54, who lives in Citrus Heights, Calif. "I can't wait for the noise. I need an income now."

By December 2009, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the number of people who said they were self-employed specifically because they couldn't land full-time jobs had jumped to 1.2 million, more than double the pre-recession number.

Federal statistics from 2005 show that more than 42 million Americans -- one-third of the work force -- already had part-time or temporary jobs, and more than 10 million were independent contractors.

Some experts think the growth of the flexible employment trend shows that the American workplace is undergoing a fundamental change. Others insist it's a temporary offshoot of the recession, a predictable side effect of tough times.

Russell simply thinks he needs to do something to keep from losing his house. Besides taking contract work individually, he and a handful of partners have started their own business, building websites using the Drupal software platform.

Wearing nice slacks, dress shirts and ties, the partners regularly meet in a corner of a restaurant in an area shopping center built during the suburb's boom years. Russell sets up his laptop and sips coffee as the lunchtime crowd dwindles.

"A lot of the jobs now are temporary contracting positions," said Ron McClure, 63, a certified project manager whose most recent business, a residential development company, took a nosedive when the economy tanked. "If you get one of those, you take it." They would rather have full-time jobs, period. And they're looking for work. But with the nation's unemployment rate at 9.7 percent, the competition for full-time openings can be fierce.

For workers unhinged from the world of permanent employment, freelance positions are a way to pay the bills -- an opportunity to make an income and get a foot in the door with a potential new employer, as well as a means of taking control of their own careers.

This is not your parents' job market, successful independent contractors argue, so why try to have your parents' long-term, one- or two-company career?

"This flexible work force has been growing since the 1970s," said Sara Horowitz of the New York-based Freelancers Union. "What the recession shows is that people are just following the work. They're piecing together these careers now."

But the downside of short-term work is sizable: no medical, disability or retirement benefits, no paid time off, no guarantees of future employment.

As Helen Scully of Folsom's Scully Career Associates points out, freelancing doesn't provide a steady paycheck, and it's not predictable.

What's more, said Davis career counselor Andrea Weiss: "You can be an expert in your field, but if you're not excellent in marketing and knowing how to sell yourself, self-employment can be very difficult."