Upwork, the world's largest online marketplace for matching freelancers with jobs, has for the second year in a row teamed up with the New York-based Freelancer's Union to publish their survey of the state of "Freelancing in America 2015." They claim it's the nation's largest and most comprehensive survey of how the domestic independent workforce is performing within the freelance economy.Survey wars, and defining the territory.It comes on the heels of MBO Partners’ “State of Independence in America 2015" survey, which was also covered recently in this blog, Some of the results are similar, but due to differences in the way each defined "independent worker," many of the actual numbers don't match up. I'll call the newest one the FU/Upwork study, a name that has a nice ring to it. (It recalls something like 'take your 9-5 job and shove it!' - a sentiment clearly reflected in the attitudes surveyed, as I discuss later.)The MBO Partners study defines "freelancers" as workers 21 and over who are steadily employed in the industry, week over week, either on a full or part-time basis. FU/Upwork defines "freelancers" as anyone 18 and over who has engaged in supplemental, temporary, project or contract-based work at any time in the last 12 months.Different definitions yield different numbers.MBO Partners declared this year's number of freelancers held steady from last year, at 30.2 million total. FU/Upwork says there are now 53.7 million Americans freelancing under their much broader definition of the number of freelancers in 2015.As an overall percentage of the employed workforce in the US, FU/Upwork says it's up to about a third, or 34% today. Under their narrower definition, MBO Partners predict that freelancers could make up 30% of the workforce by 2020.Here's where they agreed.Both surveys reported the majority of freelancers who left traditional employment to freelance now earn more than they did in their jobs, and most of those were able to pass that income milestone within the first year of freelancing. Again, the numbers between the two studies aren't identical, but the trend is confirmed in both.

In each case, nearly half of all freelancers surveyed reported high job satisfaction, felt optimistic about their careers, saw demand for their services increasing, and saw it as a positive step not only for themselves, but for the economy as a whole.

FU/Upwork ascribes part of this positive outlook to the availability of online staffing platforms like Upwork and Graphite, which make it simple for independent professionals to connect with other independents, small businesses and entrepreneurs looking for their kind of talent. But then again, this study was partly sponsored by Upwork, so it's not surprising they'd focus on that factor.MBO Partners focused on freelancing satisfaction as a result of improved income risk management. The ability to work for multiple employers means you spread the risk of layoffs, downsizings, mergers and other sudden job losses that are mostly out of your control. With freelancing there's always a fallback gig to keep you alive if one drops away.The conclusion from reading both studies is that whether you call them independents, freelancers, or contingent workers, and whether they do it full or part time, they're not just a growing percentage of the workforce. They're earning more and they're happier, proving it's possible to be a success even after leaving the Mother Ship. Professionals working through Graphite know this, and soon so will the rest of the world.You can see both studies here: Upwork/Freelancers UnionMBO Partners