A certain kind of realization comes on slowly at first and then all at once. For many economists and labor researchers, that moment came around 2023, when the rise in freelance work after the pandemic stopped looking like a one-time event and began to look like a permanent change. The most recent data release from the Workforce Information Council not only backs up that suspicion, it makes it stronger in ways that are hard to ignore.
The number in the headline is pretty clear: between 72.9 and 76.4 million Americans now do some kind of freelance, independent, or gig-based work. That’s about 36% of all the people working in the U.S. Based on some predictions, that number could rise to almost half of all workers by the end of 2026. It’s possible that the change is no longer a trend. At this size, it’s the setting.
What the data does, however, is make the old story about people driving for rideshare at midnight because they couldn’t find a stable job more complicated. That story was never completely true, and it’s almost certainly no longer true. Platform and Bureau of Labor Statistics data show that the average American freelancer made about $108,000 in 2025. That’s more than twice the average level of income in the United States. On paid platforms, senior developers and AI experts make $150 to $300 an hour. The difference in pay between skilled freelancers and salaried workers has been getting smaller, and in some fields it has even gone the other way.
Still, making the picture flat would be wrong. A relatively small group of high-earning knowledge workers—consultants, engineers, and AI specialists—raise that average by a lot. Their rates push the overall number up. According to SHED data from the Federal Reserve, only 21% of gig workers see this as their main job. A lot of people’s gig income isn’t steady and doesn’t come from benefits they get from their job. There is a real tension in this economy between the freedom it gives and the attention it quietly brings.
This breakdown of sectors tells a story on its own. 42% of all freelance projects around the world are for software development. Another 31% goes to digital marketing. And freelance work related to AI has grown at such a fast rate that it’s hard to keep up. Since 2022, demand for AI and machine learning skills has grown by more than 1,200%, and year over year demand for AI video creators has grown by 66 percent. The platforms are also doing very well. The infrastructure of gig economy platforms is expected to be worth $192 billion by 2035, up from $36.7 billion in 2026. Any problems that used to exist between companies that need talent and workers who can provide it have been steadily taken away by technology.
The World Bank’s research shows that about 60% of people who work as gig workers live in smaller cities and rural areas, not in tech hubs. This is an important fact that isn’t talked about enough. Independent work is spread out across the economy in a lot more places than its Silicon Valley roots would lead you to believe. That’s not a small point for places where traditional jobs with employers have been going away for decades.
People who make employment policies, HR departments, and even individual workers have been carrying around assumptions for a long time. The Workforce Information Council data forces them to face these assumptions. Working from 9 to 5 for one boss is still a possibility, but for a large and growing part of the American workforce, it is no longer the everyday way of doing things. It probably depends on who you are and what skills you bring to the table whether that shift means freedom, instability, or a complicated mix of the two. The data don’t give you an answer. But that does mean you can’t avoid the question.
