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Energy Market Labor Trends: Freelance and Independent Workforce
According to the Inuit Report by 2020, 40 % of the US workforce will be working for organizations on a non-permanent basis, or in other words: almost half of the workforce within the US will be active as freelancers.
This would mean that in the US alone, there will be more than 60 million independent professionals, which would mean an increase of more than 40% of freelancers within the US.
Following the recent economic struggles, employment rates have recovered slowly, but it seems that freelancers and non-permanent workers have made up the exception to this rule. From 2009 until 2012, the number of temporary employees within the US rose by 29%.
The picture within the labor market of the EU isn’t much different. The number of independent professionals in the EU since 2004 has been remarkable. According to a recent report (Future Working: The Rise of Europe’s Independent Professionals) numbers have increased by 45% from just under 6.2 million to 8.9 million in 2013, making freelancers the fastest growing group within Europe’s labor market. And although growth has not been consistent across EU member states, growth in some states such as the Netherlands, Poland, and France has been going especially strong.
Freelancers already represent a significant segment of the workforce active within the US and Europe, generally making up 30% and accounting for up to 162 million people.
Global energy markets have yet to be heavily influenced by the trend of independent professionals, but recent economic developments have been setting the stage for swift changes.
After 2014 -a year marked by price shock- oil prices continued to trend lower, getting dropping to a range of $40-50/barrel. In less than a year, upstream oil and gas companies faced 50 percent drop in revenues. The industry responded by cutting capital expenditures and deferring major capital projects, pushing suppliers for better pricing, and cutting operating expenditures as well as headcounts. These changes in organizational structures, logics and employment across energy markets make the industry overdue for a shift in labor practices.
Today more ways to work remotely are offered than ever before. Personal technology that lets us communicate with one another from virtually everywhere has already reshaped work- as well as recruiting processes globally.
But there is another kind of technology arguably playing an even bigger role—platforms designed to match companies with professionals.
E-nable’s Freelancer module gives independent professionals of the energy sector a stage to showcase their skills and expertise, matching companies with energy freelancers on an international basis.
Adding a third dimension to the services offered by the energy platform E-nable+ creates holistic services for energy projects across renewable and non-renewable energy markets.
Targeting one of the biggest hindrances for most freelancers -business development and maintaining their project pipelines- E-nable+ was created to help independent professionals to find jobs in their chosen fields.
Kick-started by the launch of E-nable’s third module, users are now able to take advantage of the resulting synergies and advantages of our integrated services.
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