Very Interesting: I was studying a Mckinsey research on employment and growth(I often turn to global institutes like MGI since we have little or no fact in West Africa). Almost 162 million people in Europe and the United States- or 20 to 30 percent of the working-age population—engage in some form of independent work.
The research conducted grouped independent workers into four:
1. Free Agents: actively choose independent work and derive their primary income from it. 30% | 49 million
2. Casual Earners: use independent work for supplemental income and do so by choice 40% | 64 million
3. Reluctants: make primary living from independent work but would prefer traditional jobs 14% | 23 million
4. Financially Strapped: do supplemental independent work out of necessity. 16% | 26 million
Important points: The first group, the free agents has a higher level of satisfaction in multiple dimension than those holding traditional jobs by choice. This indicates that people are driven by non-monetary aspects of works than the stable flow of income.