The Influx of Online Jobs

It used to be that you were employed, self-employed or unemployed. It was either you work in an office for someone else, or you had your own business as an entrepreneur, or you stay at home if you are jobless. The influx of online jobs has created another class of workers that does not really fall under these three traditional categories.

Enter the freelances, the telecommuters, the providers. No matter how they are called, people holding online jobs are increasing by the minute. A quick look at ODesk, one popular site for finding online jobs, would reveal that there are currently more than 350,000 providers signed up to the service, while more than 320,000 online jobs have been posted. The site also boasts of more than $96 million in earnings to date.

And why not? The benefits are seemingly endless. For businesses, they are able to get top talent for seasonal projects without having to worry about increasing their overhead cost, or rearranging their offices to make room for a new employee. They gain the expertise without the unnecessary expenses. For the online job holder, it means the flexibility and convenience of being able to work where they want, when they want. For some, having an online job means a higher monthly income than holding on to a regular job.

Online jobs have become quite popular that it is affecting the traditional office setups. For one, it gave rise to telecommuting or work at home as more and more employees are seeing the benefits of not traveling to and from the physical office yet getting their work done just as well. On a larger scale, it has given rise to the outsourcing phenomena, a set up wherein companies hire another company to provide employees for them.

All of these would not have been possible without the advent of technology. The Internet and other related technology has made communication easier. Whereas before, you needed to be at the office to deliver your work, you can easily e-mail your output in. Instead of using the office phone, you can use voice-over-IP. There are even applications available right now that allows one user to log in remotely into another computer, or perhaps collaborate online.

Whereas it has been quite impossible to get a team from another state or another country to work for you, it is now very easy and convenient to get the best people on your team, no matter where they are situated. You can easily have a marketing guy in India, a sales guy in the Philippines, or a manufacturing facility in Mexico, and it would still feel like everybody is in the headquarters in New York.

What is more, the advances in online security have made it possible to send payments or salaries securely over the Web. Add to the fact that the global banking system is much more efficient and faster now than ever before, it means that people can expect to get paid on time for the job they performed.