Contractors are both the product and drivers of de-industrialisation, which has been identified as one of seven megatrends in a new report by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD).
Megatrends: The trends shaping work and working lives warns that “the world’s changing faster than work is”, and asks whether businesses, such as contractor clients and employers, are prepared for what is coming their way.
“The future of work, the changing nature of the workforce, and the organisation and culture of the workplace are among the biggest challenges facing organisations and their leaders,” highlights CIPD chief executive Peter Cheese.
“These are big challenges. If we get them right, we can deliver better work and working lives and stronger, more sustainable organisations,” he adds.
The report notes that as the UK was the first nation to industrialise, so it was the first to de-industrialise, “whereby output and employment is increasingly concentrated in services, rather than manufacturing”.
And contractors are at the heart of the de-industrialisation process as, according to the report, “the general trend in the service sector has been for the fastest jobs growth to be in relatively highly skilled, knowledge-intensive areas”.
The other megatrend to affect contractors is the “greater diversity in employment relationships and how we work”, by which the CIPD means the growth of the flexible workforce and the increasing numbers of contractors and freelancers.
Although the percentage of workers in full-time employment has remain fairly stable at around 60% since 1997, this dropped sharply in 2008 and remains well below the long-term average.
CIPD identifies that the use of freelance portals is also part of the greater diversity megatrend, as “technology is enabling new forms of work organisation, such as global spot markets for freelance work”.
According to CIPD chief economist Mark Beatson, the megatrends report is only the beginning of an investigation in the changes to how we work: “We’ll be delving deeper into these emerging trends … to see whether these are truly new and emerging forces that will stay with us, or the consequences of the troubled times we live in.”
The other five megatrends are: technological change and globalisation, demographic change, increased female labour market participation, increased educational participation, and declining union membership. A CIPD infographic highlights some of the findings of the report.