CNN Money writes in an article from earlier this week that the percentage of American workers employed in freelance, temporary or self-employed circumstances is expected to climb to 40% in ten years time. For creative professionals, the future is already here.

The Salary Survey we've conducted here at Coroflot for the past several years has long supported a suspicion shared by many designers: that they engage in freelance or other flexible working situations at a higher rate than the workforce as a whole. The 2008 survey shows most fields reporting around 60% of respondents in corporate positions, with the remainder divided between freelancers and consultancies, plus a few odd "other" replies, and while consultancies certainly employ full-time staffers, the core-plus-freelancers model is probably the most common. Add the growing popularity of project-oriented hiring in corporate studios as well, and you've got a total flexible workforce that's probably pushing 40% already, if not surpassing it.

The reasons for this tendency have been discussed for quite a while -- the perceived optional nature of design work in many fields, the intense competition for work, and the never-ending search for more interesting projects, among others -- but its appearance in other fields is a relatively new thing. A typical graphic designer can pretty much expect to have a spell of freelance work at some point in her career, but for most bankers (for example) this is still a fairly novel notion.

This may be a good thing for designers. Since creative hiring decisions are often made by folks in less freelance-prone fields, convincing an interviewer that a resume full of short-term employment doesn't indicate flightiness can be problematic. An environment where other professions are seeing more temporary and contract employment, though, could make those ears more sympathetic. It should, in any case, help dispel the image of the loose cannon designer, freelance by choice rather than necessity.

There are multiple downsides to this trend for the job market as whole, however, one of which was elucidated by Chelsea Vandiver, head of Ziba's Communications Design Group in Portland last week. While on the panel at Thursday's Creative Employment Confab, she pointed out that applicants often define their own temp-ability through their skill set. "When I see craft," she explained, "I think freelance," while staff positions generally require excellent communication, management and cross-disciplinary skills as well. The CAD Monkey and Hot Pencil stereotypes bear this out: much as we might admire a tongue-tied prodigy who does nothing but crank out gorgeous renderings all day, we rarely envision him rising through the ranks, or even staying put for more than a year or two.

Could it be that the further Temping of America will exacerbate this split and drive it into other professional fields, leaving us with a bifurcated work force of full-time overlords and lifelong temps? The creative professions are generally understanding of a freelance youth, and with some demonstrated savvy and leadership experience, shifting from temp to staff is tricky but not impossible. Other fields, newer to these employment structures, may not be so forgiving.