New technology and a new capitalist business model are exploding the new class of independent professionals into the workplace. Instead, they contract with employers to work on specific projects, usually for a limited and contractually defined period of time. They may work serially for one employer after another, or may have many clients at once. Independent professionals are knowledge workers with specialized skills that are expensive for companies to develop in-house. But they, like all other workers, make their living by selling their labor.
Independent professionals are a burgeoning class because of the rapidity of technological advances.
Companies today find it expensive and inefficient to continually retrain their workers. This is especially true since companies have trained loyalty out of the workforce through the waves of layoffs in the 80s and 90s. Companies find that too often, after investing substantially in training employees in new technologies, the employees pursue more lucrative opportunities elsewhere. Independent professionals maintain their market value by keeping abreast of the latest advances. By contracting them only when needed, companies share with the IP s other clients the investment in retraining and cost of the learning curve.