The America job market is experiencing a great transition as many are joining the increasing number of freelancers and independent contractors, writes Sreekar Jasthi in a blog published on nerdwallet, a website that provides financial education and empowerment. According to the write up, a report from Intuit gives a projection that the number of contingent workers in the country will go up by more than 40 percent of the workforce by 2020.
The U.S. Census Bureau's American Community Survey reveals that for 2013, 12.3 million households earned their income through self-employment via freelancing or independent contract work where an average of $34,095 is earned.
But Agent Ace says it takes a special kind of person to become a freelancer. That person has to be self-motivated, happy to work from home even on mere pajamas and creative.
Asti adds that while freelancing offers some convenience over regular employment, such as flexibility in terms of work schedule and projects, the downside of it is that there is less job security, volatile flow of income and higher health care costs. Moreover, the place where a freelancer choose to reside has a big influence on their quality of life. NerdWallet analyzed 100 largest cities in the US to determine the best places for freelancers, based on these factors:
1. Freelancing environment - refers to how conducive a city is for successful freelancing, by looking at the percentage of households earning self-employment income in each city and the average self-employment income earned by those households.
2. Health care access and affordability - by looking at the percentage of the population with direct-purchase health insurance and their average monthly health insurance costs.
3. Cost of living - by using the city's median cost of rent in each city as a proxy for the cost of living.
Here are the 10 top cities for freelancers:
1 Scottsdale, Arizona
2 Los Angeles, California
3 Portland, Oregon
4 Austin, Texas
5 Boise, Idaho
6 Nashville, Tennessee
7 Greensboro, North Carolina
8 San Francisco, California
9 Tulsa, Oklahoma
10 Dallas, Texas
