Contingent Labor Declaring Independent Workers Avoid worker misclassification with these six steps. By Nathan Gibson Recent reports have offered conflicting opinions as to whether the number of independent contractors is growing or declining. The Freelancers Union says nearly one in three working Americans is an independent worker and MBO Partners says that " the independent workforce ... is expected to grow to 24 million strong by 2018. " On the other hand CareerBuilder and Economic Modeling Specialists Intl. (EMSI) report that the number of self-employed workers has declined 5 percent since 2009. Justin Fox of the Harvard Business Review looks more closely at the situation and discovers that whether you think independent workers are increasing or decreasing may depend on how you define them. His research also indicates that the number of some self-employed occupations is increasing while others are decreasing. For example, the number of self-employed farmers and ranchers is declining, while the number of web designers is increasing. While individual occupational categories may be increasing or decreasing, 27 percent of the total workforce is expected to be contingent labor in 2015, according to Aberdeen research. MAY 2014 | www.hrotoday.com [25]http://www.hrotoday.com