The Geography of America's Freelance Economy

Writing in The Atlantic back in 2011, Sara Horowitz, the founder of Freelancers Union, dubbed the "freelance surge" the "Industrial Revolution of our time" — as significant a shift in employment patterns as has been seen since the transition from agriculture to industry in the 1800s.

A recent report estimates that there are about 17 million full-employed freelancers, or independent workers, a number than swells to more than 40 million, roughly a third of the workforce, when you include temps, part-timers, contractors, contingent workers, and those who are under-employed or work without employer-sponsored health insurance, 401Ks or FLEX accounts, according to a post by Whitney Johnson in the Harvard Business Review.