越来越多的人认为，二十一世纪初叶堪称“美国自由职业时代”的开端，亦可以说是其回归之年。

    自由职业者求职网站Elance于今年9月调研了超过3,000名自由职业者后发布报告称，57%的受访者称收入在2012年出现上涨，67%的受访者预计2012年收入将会有所上涨。

    Elance网站首席执行官法比奥•罗萨蒂说，到2012年底，公司网站上发布的招聘自由职业者的工作岗位接近100万个，较2011年的65万个工作岗位有大幅上涨。他说：“各类公司发布的‘分包工作’数量创下了新纪录，而且通过这个渠道招聘了许多对口的自由职业者。”上述调查报告称，42%的雇主预计会在2013年招聘更多的自由职业者。

    罗塞蒂说，创意人员、技术人员、IT和程序员是自由职业市场上需求增长最快的岗位。创意人员需要具备多媒体制作技能，IT和程序员也常需要开发手机应用软件。罗塞蒂说，招聘市场对法务和财会自由职业者的需求也很旺盛。

    过去几年间，自由职业者的人数保持了相对稳定。据美国劳工统计局（the Bureau of Labor Statistics）的数据，2009年，有1,530万美国人自称自由职业者。2012年10月，这一数字为1,490万人。

    聘用自由职业者对雇主来说益处多多。首先便是成本的降低。企业无需为顾问或是临时工作人员提供医保、养老金和带薪假期，有时甚至连办公室都不用提供。

    Elance网站上有83%的雇主表示，雇用自由职业者最主要的动因就是完成工作的速度。这些公司称，很多情况下，自由职业者的专业技能和专注工作可以令项目得以更快地完成。罗塞蒂说，一旦自由职业者入职并了解了企业文化后，公司就能够逐渐培养起一支自由职业者员工队伍，能够又快又好地完成任务。

    《自由职业的国度》（Free Agent Nation）一书的作者丹尼尔•平克将最新兴起的自由职业浪潮归结为如下几个因素。首先，平克称“疲软的经济令雇主们不愿雇用全职员工”，而自由职业者却能“在合适的时间用合适的技能完成合适的工作”。

    这股浪潮的兴起还改变了雇主与雇员之间的社会契约关系。“裁员的现实，不仅是一次性的裁员而且还有挥之不去的裁员阴影，改变了雇主和雇员之间讨价还价的现状，”平克说。

    Elance网站称，21%的会员是因丢掉工作之后才走上了自由职业者的道路，还有40%的人是将自由职业的收入作为全职工作收入的补充。

    More and more, it seems the early 21st century will be marked as the beginning -- or return, as the case may be -- of the era of the American freelancer.

    A September survey of over 3,000 independent contractors conducted by Elance, a website that helps freelancers find work, reports that 57% of those surveyed reported an increase in 2012 income and 67% expect their income to rise in 2012.

    Fabio Rosati, CEO of Elance, says that his company's site will have posted nearly 1 million freelance jobs by the end of 2012, a substantial increase from 650,000 in 2011. "Businesses are posting a record number of 'fractional' jobs and hiring freelancers suited to do the work," he says. In Elance's survey, 42% of employers said they anticipate hiring more freelancers in 2013 than the previous year.

    Creative, technical, IT, and programming gigs are the fastest growing in the freelance market, according to Rosati. He says that these creative jobs often call for multimedia skills, and IT and programming often entail mobile app development. Rosati says that freelance legal and accounting workers are also in demand.

    The ranks of the self-employed have held relatively steady over the past few years. In 2009, 15.3 million Americans identified themselves as self-employed, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. In October 2012, 14.9 million U.S. workers were self-employed.

    Employers enjoy several benefits from hiring freelancers. For one, it keeps their costs down, since consultants or temporary workers don't receive health care and retirement benefits, vacation time, and many do not require office space.

    Eighty-three percent of Elance's employer clients cite speed as a major impetus to hiring freelancers. In many cases, these companies claim, projects are completed faster because freelancers bring special skills and can zero in on each job. Once a freelancer is brought on board and gets a sense of the culture at a company, firms often develop a steady cohort of independent contractors who perform work quickly, Rosati suggests.

    Daniel Pink, author of Free Agent Nation, attributes the recent rise in freelancers to several factors. For one, Pink says, the "dodgy economy has made employers loath to hire full-timers." Freelancers provide "the right talent for the right task at the right time," he says.

    The rise in hiring freelancing has also transformed the social contract between worker and employee. "The reality of downsizing -- not as a one-time occurrence but as an omnipresent possibility -- has altered the bargain," Pink says.

    Elance says 21% of its subscribers started to freelance after they were laid off from their jobs, while 40% started taking contract work to supplement income from full-time jobs.

    尽管自由职业者无法获得医保这类员工福利，但自从雷曼兄弟（Lehman Brothers）、鲍德斯书店（Borders）和华盛顿互惠银行（Washington Mutual）等大公司倒闭之后，职场中的“不安全感”情绪在不断蔓延。不少自由职业者坦言，比起依赖于某个雇主，自己给自己打工要感觉更安全一点。如果一个客户丢掉了，还有其他的可以来补充。

    来自美国马萨诸塞州格林菲尔德的丹•尼森鲍姆是一位JAVA程序员，他在1999年时曾在一家名为Cimex的软件集成公司担任全职工作，主要负责计算机辅助设计程序的开发。但他却说喜欢在小公司里工作，“我不能忍受坐办公室，它会扼杀一个人全部的创意。”最终，他辞去工作，并在美国西北大学（Northwestern University）获得了物理学博士学位，然后在2008年成了一名自由职业者。

    尼森鲍姆拥有非常热门的技能，令他在一众自由职业者中脱颖而出。离家外出工作时，他会仔细挑选客户并从工作中获得乐趣。一旦某个客户提出过分要求，他就会为他们开出解除合同通知书，停止继续为他们工作。他语带讥讽地说：“对程序员指手划脚根本没什么用。”

    那么，做自由职业者有哪些不足之处呢？首先是必须自掏腰包才能获得与大部分全职员工相同的福利。42岁的尼森鲍姆说，他不得不提高收费以支付医保费用以及为晚年生活所存的生活费。他所服务的一个大客户是好莱坞的一家公司，目前这家公司在为他们这些自由职业者建立档案数据库。

    虽然如此，他还是常常在Guru 和Elance这些网站搜寻新的工作项目。不停地寻找新工作也常常令他焦虑不已，但是又有什么办法呢？尼森鲍姆说：“无论是全职工作还是自由职业，总归都是缺乏职业稳定性的。”

    肯•兰卡斯特是美国德克萨斯州达拉斯市一家名为兰卡斯特广告营销公司（Lancaster Advertising & Marketing）的创始人和创意总监。2004年，公司拥有4,000平方英尺的办公室和15名全职员工，营业额高达300万美元。如今办公室缩小到350平方英尺，而他也成了公司唯一的一名全职员工。

    但如今，兰卡斯特随时都可以说自己雇用了15到30名兼职网页开发员、软件程序员、搜索引擎营销专家和平面设计师。这些人中有的是在美国，更多的是在亚洲、东欧和南美等国家。他从2004年开始就和其中一些人合作，通常是按项目或是小时结算薪水。

    兰卡斯特说雇用自由职业者不但可以大幅削减成本、为客户提供物美价廉的商品，还能为自己带来更多的灵活性。他说：“这样的好处是我无需为他们缴纳个人所得税和医保，还能为客户提供高性价比的产品。唯一的问题就是没人可以说说话。”

    While freelancers must operate without the security blanket of employee benefits like health insurance, the insecurity in the workplace, after the demise of major companies like Lehman Brothers, Borders, and Washington Mutual is pervasive, Pink says. No one's job is secure. Some freelancers contend they're safer working for themselves rather than depending on one employee. If one client disappears, freelancers can fall back on several others.

    Dan Nissenbaum, a Greenfield, Mass.-based software programmer who specializes in Java programming, spent a year working full-time at Cimex Corporation, a software integration company, in 1999, where he worked on CAD (computer assisted design). While he says he liked working at a small company, "I can't stand working in an office. It stultifies your ability to do creative work." He left the job to earn a doctorate in physics at Northwestern University and started freelancing in 2008.

    Nissenbaum possesses skills that are in demand, which separates him from other independent contractors. Working out of his home, he says he chooses his clients carefully and finds his work satisfying. When one client made excessive demands, he gave them the pink slip and stopped working for them. "Telling a programmer what to do isn't effective," he says wryly.

    What's the downside of freelancing? Having to pay out of pocket for benefits most full-time employees receive by default, says the 42-year-old Nissenbaum. He says he charges a higher hourly fee to cover health care costs and puts money aside for his senior years. He works mostly for one primary client, a Hollywood firm that is creating a database for their archives.

    Still, he's always searching Guru and Elance for new assignments. Having to constantly pursue new work puts him on edge, but what's the alternative? "There's a lack of stability whether you're a full-time worker or a freelancer," Nissenbaum says.

    Ken Lancaster, owner and creative director of Dallas, Texas-based Lancaster Advertising & Marketing, until 2004 had 15 full-time staffers, a 4,000 square foot office, and generated $3 million in revenue. He's since downsized into a 350-square-foot office and is his company's only full-time employee.

    At any given time, Lancaster says he hires 15 to 30 freelance web developers, software programmers, search engine marketing specialists, and graphic designers. Some are based in the U.S., but many work out of Asia, Eastern Europe, and South America. He's worked with some freelancers since 2004, always on a project or hourly basis.

    Lancaster says hiring independent contractors has slashed his costs, produces better work at cheaper prices for his clients, and offers him more flexibility. "I don't have their payroll taxes or health insurance and my clients get more for their money. The only problem is there's no one to talk to," he notes.

    如果需要雇佣人手，他会到Elance和其他招聘网站上去研究简历，把问题通过邮件发给他们，然后通过Skype来面试候选人。过去，为了节约成本，他不得不招一些初级的、毫无经验的员工，然后花费大量的时间培训他们。如今，他可以随时从网络上找到、招聘一些资深员工，这些人无需培训就能立即上手工作。

    如今，企业必须为全职员工支付越来越高的医保费，还要替他们承担更多的退休金计划，平克说：“传统意义上的全职员工与自由职业者之间的界限已经越来越模糊了。”

    译者：唐昕昕

    When hiring, he studies portfolios on Elance and other online sites, reviews them, asks questions via e-mail, and can interview candidates via Skype. In the past, he was forced to hire junior, inexperienced staffers he could afford and would have to spend hours training them. Now he can find seasoned contractors online, hire them online, and have them start producing immediately -- no training required.

    Organizations are increasingly asking full-time employees to pay higher fees for their health care benefits and contribute a larger percentage to their retirement plans, Pink says. "The border between who's a traditional employee and who's a free agent has grown a lot murkier."