By the year 2025, most workers (70 percent) and employers (68 percent) agree a majority of the workforce will be employed in an agile working capacity as contractors, consultants, temporary or freelance staff, according to a study released by Randstad US. The Workplace 2025 report of more than 3,100 workersand 1,500 HR and c-suite executives across the US found that as early as 2019, as much as 50 percent of the workforce will be comprised of agile workers, as nearly 4 in 10 (39 percent) workers say they are likely to consider shifting to an agile arrangement over the next two-to-three years. The study claims that this movement is fueling an equally aggressive adoption of new workforce models that tap into both permanent and agile employees to combat staffing shortages, leverage globalization and fuel greater innovation for organizations.
- Approximately half (46 percent) of workers surveyed said they personally chose to become an agile worker. The Workplace 2025 study uncovered the primary motivations behind this:
- 68 percent agree it better fits their lifestyle.
- 63 percent believe working as an agile working employee will make them more qualified in the future workplace.
- 56 percent agree agile work makes them more money.
- 48 agree agile work offers them better career growth than working as a permanent employee.
- 38 percent agree they feel more job security working as an agile worker than they do as a permanent employee.