Small Business Labs

MARCH 28, 2017

A recent academic study, The End of Men and Rise of Women in the High-Skilled Labor Market , shows that women are rapidly gaining ground in a number of high paying fields. The reason is success in a growing number of high-skill professions requires more interpersonal skills like collaboration, empathy, and managing others.

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Small Business Labs

FEBRUARY 27, 2017

By "privileged" they mean self-employed workers who are relatively highly skilled and well paid. They contrast this with what they call the "precarious" sector, which they define as the self-employed working in lower skilled, lower paying sectors. 

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Small Business Labs

JUNE 9, 2015

  The problem is a mismatch between job skills and job openings. In response to this problem a rapidly growing industry focused on providing skills training and job placement has emerged. A good example is General Assembly , which teaches technology, design and business skills through a variety of part-time and full-time courses.

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Small Business Labs

FEBRUARY 18, 2021

The central concept of the book is what the author calls the "career mashup"   This is a career where workers merge their skills, interests, passions, and experiences in a way that fits a person's whole self. Align their interests, strengths, and skills to get them where they want to be.

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Small Business Labs

MAY 18, 2020

provide their skills to business clients.   The common denominators among these roles are that the work is knowledge-based and that the skills they represent are often difficult to source through traditional labor markets. MBO Partners recently released its 2020 Client of Choice study results, which found that 7.6

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Small Business Labs

MARCH 14, 2019

.  But as companies become more reliant on external talent, they increasingly need to structure their policies, procedures, and engagement practices in order to be successful in attracting, engaging, and retaining highly skilled independent professionals.  The Opportunity to Learn and Build Skills.

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Small Business Labs

OCTOBER 9, 2018

The white paper points out highly skilled expert talent is in demand. Key quote: Whether an individual chooses to be a full-time employee, or an independent expert, it has never been easier to market and sell expert skills across the entire planet.

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Small Business Labs

JANUARY 28, 2019

The study points out that about half of the new freelancers - especially the "digital nomads" and "fly-in experts" - are doing skilled work. Low-skill, low-wage freelance tasks accounted for only about half of the freelance work sourced through platforms.

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Skills 229

Small Business Labs

NOVEMBER 30, 2017

occupations into jobs that require high, medium or low digital skills and tracks the impacts of rapid change."   The bad news is workers who don't have digital skills, or can't acquire them, face declining job options. The good news is those with digital skills tend to be paid pretty well.

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Small Business Labs

MARCH 12, 2019

  Like prior years, the 2019 study focuses on the growing group of highly-skilled independent professionals (freelancers, independent consultants, etc.) This, coupled with the growing demand for skilled independent workers, is resulting in more choosing to do this work.  

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Small Business Labs

APRIL 16, 2019

By this they mean many jobs are evolving and requiring new combinations of human skills and capabilities. In particular, they see jobs increasingly requiring both hard and soft skills. Historically, these types of skills have not been combined in the same job." It will also require major shifts in thinking. 

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Small Business Labs

DECEMBER 10, 2018

Key quote on why this is happening: College is more expensive these days, the way that we think about work and training is shifting, and existing positions are requiring more tech skills than ever before. The article also references a prior Crunchbase article, China’s Education Startups Continue To Pull In Massive Funding Rounds.

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Small Business Labs

JANUARY 29, 2019

Those seeking new skills : One of the more interesting findings of our gig economy studies is about 16% of online gig workers report doing this work to learn a new skill or expand their existing skills. Again, these sites let the user have complete control over their schedule and level of activity.

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Small Business Labs

JANUARY 11, 2018

" According to the article, the primary driver is skilled gig workers earn a lot more than traditional employees doing the same work.  They blame a combination of skilled labor shortages and the industry not being an attractive employer.      Sterling doesn't see this shift as a good thing. . 

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Skills 162

Small Business Labs

JANUARY 6, 2020

  Often workers choose to go independent to explore new opportunities, learn new skills or gain flexibility.   Talent mobility is a growing fact of corporate life, especially among highly skilled workers.    Talent mobility is a growing fact of corporate life, especially among highly skilled workers. 

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Small Business Labs

DECEMBER 2, 2019

  The data comes from EMSI's Talent Attraction Scorecard , which looks at six metrics by county: job growth, skilled job growth, net migration, annual openings for skilled workers (per capita), educational attainment growth (based on adults with associate degrees and above), and a broad measure of regional competitiveness.

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Small Business Labs

AUGUST 12, 2019

For example, item 88 - Soft Skills - is described as: "Employees need abilities computers and automated systems don’t have – like creativity, adaptability and persuasion. The BBC's The 101 people, ideas and things changing how we work today really does cover 101 different trends, shifts, people and things impacting the future of work.

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Skills 119

Small Business Labs

NOVEMBER 12, 2018

One of their key selling points is the skill of their agents. And, of course, it’s another example of a firm using skilled independent workers.  We met with Liveops last week and learned they have about 20,000 independent agents providing customer service and sales support to over 400 enterprise clients.

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Small Business Labs

MAY 13, 2019

Key quote: "The jobs of the future are expected to be more machine-powered and data-driven than in the past, but they will also likely require human skills in areas such as problem-solving, communication, listening, interpretation, and design."

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Small Business Labs

AUGUST 27, 2018

The courses are also vocational in the sense that they teach a specific skill. This means most of their classes have topics of interest to freelancers interested in learning new business related skills, such as technology, web development and design, creative skills and classes on entrepreneurship.

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Small Business Labs

JULY 23, 2019

Other reasons for side gigs are to pursue a passion, build skills and to start or test out a new business opportunity. With wage stagnation, the hollowing out of middle skill jobs and the rising costs of housing, healthcare and education showing no signs of abating, we believe the number of Americans with side gigs will continue to grow.

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Small Business Labs

SEPTEMBER 21, 2017

Satisfaction levels for Independents are the highest they’ve ever been, but many will return to traditional work to gain new skills, cycling back to independent work several times.   But some of the returnees are people who are going back to a traditional job to gain new skills or are attracted by new opportunities. 

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Small Business Labs

AUGUST 7, 2018

The strong economy makes independent work more attractive for those with in-demand skills. Due to worker shortages and the "war for talent", the strong economy means more opportunities for independent workers with in-demand skills. This is leading to more highly skilled workers going independent. 

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Small Business Labs

JULY 20, 2020

Use Social Media to Market Your Skills. .   Because of this, we found the recent MBO Partners' blog post How to Become a Consultant: 5 Steps to Starting Right to be very timely. Their 5 steps are: Confirm that Self-Employment is Right for You. Develop a Strong Network. Hone Your Personal Brand. Take a Look at Your Finances.

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Small Business Labs

AUGUST 29, 2019

Key quote on what this means: One of the broader findings of the MBO Partners SOI study series is that independent workers with in-demand skills and a tolerance for the risks associated with independent work are thriving. The well-being scores from this study reinforce this. often struggle financially.

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Small Business Labs

MAY 3, 2018

Examples include doctors, lawyers, electricians and others where you want to make sure the people providing the service are highly skilled. With more companies and consumers hiring talent and help online, there is a greater need for sellers to establish they have the required skills. Certifications help do this.

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Small Business Labs

AUGUST 10, 2017

  Given this background, it's not surprising the book is targeted at skilled professionals considering or already working independently.  It also shows they often aren't up to speed in terms of the digital skills and knowledge that are helpful in succeeding in an independent "encore" career. 

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Small Business Labs

SEPTEMBER 17, 2018

Only stem skills will be important. Our favorite is  These are 3 of the most pervasive future of work myths.    The article's 3 myths, which we agree with, are: AI will totally replace humans. We're entering a work-free future. See the article for more on why these are myths. And see the whole series.

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Skills 142

Small Business Labs

OCTOBER 9, 2017

These are challenging direct selling jobs and most people don't have the skills or temperament to be successful in this field. But those that have these skills and attributes can be successful. You no longer need to have the sales skills required of multi-level marketing thanks to the growing options provided by the gig economy. 

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Skills Health Management 150

Small Business Labs

OCTOBER 23, 2018

Earlier this year McKinsey released another in their series of future of work reports, Skill Shift: Automation and the Future of the Workforce. The key finding from our perspective is that corporations are increasingly agility as a key business requirement.

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Skills 114

Small Business Labs

SEPTEMBER 26, 2017

EY also announced EY Badges , a certification program that will allow EY employees "the ability to digital credentials in skills that differentiate them in the market, such as data analytics, AI, data transformation and information strategy."

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Skills Learning 150

Small Business Labs

MAY 8, 2018

This is especially true for independents with in-demand skills. Because of these factors, we've seen an increase in the number of highly skilled independent workers over the past 8 years. At the same time, the strong job market means independents have an easier time finding work due to labor shortages.

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Small Business Labs

JULY 3, 2018

The book's bottom line on the gig economy is for those with the right skills (like the computer programmer), the gig economy provides a flexible, interesting and lucrative alternative to a traditional job. The theme that unites them is they all get work via an online marketplace or platform.

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2011 Skills Management 129

Small Business Labs

JUNE 13, 2017

The tight labor market and ongoing economic expansion is enabling those whose skills are in demand to get more work, and to command a premium for their services. It's also leading to more highly skilled people to choose independent work over traditional employment. The number of part-time independents also declined.

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Small Business Labs

MARCH 31, 2016

This is as the use of skilled external talent increases, so does the need for more efficient ways to find, hire, and manage contingent workers as well as integrate them into a company’s teams. We believe the release of PwC’s Talent Exchange to be a watershed moment in terms of how skilled external talent is used at major corporations.

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International Skills AT&T Management 100

Small Business Labs

OCTOBER 12, 2017

The Skills Gap. LinkedIn CEO, Jeff Weiner, recently shared his list of the 3 trends that will shape the future of work. These are: AI and Automation. Independent Workers. None of these are particularly new or surprising. They're all well known to anyone who has been following the future of work.

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Skills 172

Small Business Labs

SEPTEMBER 13, 2016

One of the more interesting findings from the Intuit On-Demand Economy (ODE) study is the large number of people who say learning new skills is a key reason they work in the ODE.  A bit over 40% of ODE workers who also report having a full-time job say learning new skills is one of the reasons they working in the ODE. 

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