Nov 11 2008
Working for yourself as stable as working in an office?
People always ask me if I’m ever nervous that so much of my income comes from working as a home-based freelance writer. Wouldn’t I be more comfortable with a steady salary, one that I could count on from month to month?
Well, I would be more comfortable with a steady income that I could count on from month to month. Thing is, I don’t know too many office jobs that come with any guarantees these days. Companies go out of business every day. Companies lay off or fire employees every day, often even though the employees have done nothing wrong. The office world doesn’t offer much stability any more. That’s just a fact of the working world today.
Look at these numbers recently released by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The national unemployment rate in October hit 6.5 percent, a 14-year high. Employers shed 240,000 jobs in the month. When you factor in discouraged workers, those who’ve given up trying to find new jobs, the rate jumps to 11.8 percent. Those are scary numbers.
So where’s the stability out there? At least when you work as a freelancer, you can count on yourself. I certainly wouldn’t count on an employer.
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