As HR leaders grapple with retention amid a potential recession and volatile talent market, another challenge is emerging: Employees are increasingly choosing to work independently.

Independent workers make up approximately 36% of the US workforce, up from 27% in 2016, according to McKinsey. And it’s not just younger workers: Though millennials perform gig work at the highest rate (34%), baby boomers aren’t far behind (26%), per a 2021 report by MBO Partners. Some freelance out of choice, while others do so out of necessity; many do it to supplement their salaries.

The availability of freelance work for specialized jobs with high pay—like on Catalant, a platform for independent contractors who specialize in strategic consulting—is what corporate HR leaders are often up against in their constant battle for talent.

New needs, new people. “Covid has made executives think pretty differently about how the company is going to get work done,” explained Patrick Petitti, CEO of Catalant. As the corporate use cases for freelancing expand, so have the platforms for hiring from this talent pool.

Petitti said Catalant has seen spikes in demand for talent specializing in mergers and acquisitions, supply-chain management, and strategic planning from its large corporate clients. Small and medium-sized businesses in the US, meanwhile, are increasingly using contractors for administrative, consulting, and creative work, according to a recent report from HR software firm Gusto.

Why they do it. While the idea of “being your own boss” might sound attractive, independent work comes with challenges—chief among them a lack of financial stability.

But the rapidly-evolving nature of work—more remote, global, and skills-focused—along with the emergence of platforms like Catalant and A.Team, is changing the math. Raphael Ouzan, founder and CEO of A.team, a freelancer platform with $60 million in funding from Tiger Global, Spruce Capital Partners, and Insight Partners, offers another reason why freelancing is surging. Keep reading here.—AK

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On Tuesdays, we get into the weeds with the founders of HR tech startups. Want to tell us about your company? Get in touch here.

Ben Towers is the co-founder and CEO of Happl, an employee benefits and recognition platform that aims to streamline the HR tech stack into one simple interface. In addition to providing teams personalizable benefits and perks, it handles much of the administrative work that makes benefits possible. Since its founding in 2020, Happl has raised $2 million from a variety of investors, including Y Combinator. We spoke to Towers about combining the often disparate pieces of the HR tech puzzle into a single platform, how employees can harness Happl to decide which benefits and perks are right for them, and the future of HR tech.

What product or service does your company offer? We’re an employee engagement platform. We have managed rewards, recognition, and employee benefits.

We have two different portals: One allows the employee to get access to everything from their health insurance, their well-being, learning and development, work-from-home budgets and allowances. Then managers also get a platform to be able to support their teams.

What kind of rewards and recognition are we talking about? You’ve got the obvious ones, like gifting…But sometimes it’s as simple as a public recognition—just showing this person did well this week. But the bulk, I would say, is more like selling physical products or digital gift cards.

What specific issue in HR does your company intend to solve? Keep reading here.

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A passing glance at the headlines and you might think Big Tech is all but up in flames. Layoffs are up, earnings are down, and hiring is on ice at some of the biggest names in the business. But, as IT Brew’s Eoin Higgins recently reported, that’s not the whole story.

[Chicago-area technical recruiter Alexander Finch] told IT Brew that, broadly speaking, people entering the workforce with the skill sets needed to succeed in the IT sector are going to be in luck. They’ll just need to temper their expectations for what their jobs look like. Salaries won’t likely be as high and budgets internally may be restricted, meaning that opportunities for bonuses and raises may be harder to come by.

“If they were making $100,000, now the budget’s $75,000—these very direct cuts are being made,” Finch said. “Even if the jobs are there, there’s definitely a lot of belt-tightening going on right now, and I think at the entry level, it’s always gonna feel the hardest.”

[ZipRecruiter chief economist Julia Pollak] agreed. She explained that while there are plenty of jobs, income expectations may need to be tempered to meet new realities.

“I think this pandemic has given us a tale of two job markets,” Pollak said.

Keep reading on IT Brew.—EH

Today’s top HR reads.

Stat: The US leisure and hospitality industry added 88,000 jobs last month, more than any other sector. (CNBC)

Quote: “Strong wage growth is a good thing…But for wage growth to be sustainable, it needs to be consistent with 2 percent inflation.”—Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell discussing the labor market, interest rates, and inflation (the New York Times)

Read: With salary transparency on the rise, workers are feeling more empowered to ask for raises—or at least scrutinize the fairness of pay policies. (the Wall Street Journal)