The Weekly Independent: November 21, 2016

Staying on top of your field means staying ahead of the biggest news stories. That’s why each week we bring you The Weekly Independent, a quick-hit digest of news of note from around the web.

• The Florida Times-Union’s Candace Moody interviewed MBO Partners CEO Gene Zaino about the state of independent work in America.
• Year’s end is fast approaching. Before you set your 2017 goals, take a close look at wrapping up 2016 with this Solopreneur’s End-of-Year Checklist.
• Just who works in the “gig economy”? This question – discussed in the recent McKinsey report on independent work as well as MBO’s own research – is critical for determining issues such as workforce sizing and happiness. A new piece from Time’s “Money” section examines just who makes up the gig workforce – and offers suggestions for how those considering gig work can do so successfully.
• If you’re a legal or procurement professional, you should make sure to view this past week’s webinar from SpendMatters, featuring our own Chief Operating Officer, Dave Cassar. He was joined by SpendMatters’ Andrew Karpie, where they spent a productive hour discussing real and actionable solutions for engaging today’s independent workforce.
• Is growth of platform workers (Uber, TaskRabbit, Airbnb) slowing? New data from JP Morgan Chase suggests that it is.
• Is platform work rigged? A new study out of Northeastern University in Boston suggests that racial and sexual discrimination may be common on two popular “gig economy” platforms.
• 2016 has certainly been a big year for the self-employed in the UK, and 2017 will continue to be equally newsworthy, particularly due to the fallout from Brexit, IR35 and the recent Uber ruling. News out of the UK has been particularly doom-and-gloom of late, including this recent piece from the Financial Times which suggests that independents suffer the “worst of both worlds,” namely, that they have neither the protections of a traditional employee nor the freedoms of being their own boss.
• At the same time, Staffing Industry Analysts say that businesses in the UK will use more gig economy workers in the next five years.

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