The Blog

When jobs move offshore to places like Bangalore, Mumbai, or Dublin, everyone hears about it. It’s in the media and it’s the talk of local neighborhoods. We are at the beginning of a quiet revolution in the job market, however. It’s called homeshoring (or “homesourcing”), and with an annual growth rate of 36.4% to 330,000+ people in 2010, its impact is expected to be equally significant as the many other types of shifts in the job market. With a more positive tone. 

Why? Efficiency is key to a business operation of any size. The comfort of that plaid sofa in the family room may be a factor as well.

Reports on homeshoring cover the networks of customer service representatives who work in their U.S. based homes for corporate titans like 1-800-FLOWERS, JetBlue, and Office Depot. But let’s not forget the 20+ million freelancers who are working wherever they can find free Wi-Fi access. They too are keeping talent local.

The workload is spreading, period. Floor 67 on Wall Street is moving to 301 Marysville Drive. Jobs move offshore to Mumbai on one day but are back the next. This fluctuating global market demands a strong ability to compete with consideration of opportunities that contribute to global society.

By the numbers:

330,000 — estimated homeshored jobs by 2010 (IDC)
50,000+ — customer service agents currently working at home in the U.S (DataMonitor)
20,000,000+ — independent freelancers in the U.S (Small Business Trends)
100,000,000+ — independent freelancers in China (CBIZ)
85%+ — of all businesses in the U.S. that are sole proprietors (SBA)
31% — employers who anticipated work with freelancers in 2008 (CNN)