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When the pandemic started in March 2020, a lot of us thought we would be home for two weeks, tops. Turns out that three years later, we are still feeling the effects in so many ways.
Vaccination fights, kids attending classes via iPad, hard seltzer sales and streaming services booming, followed by hybrid working situations, inflation, streaming services deflating, and a looming recession has all of us feeling ALL of the feelings.
The most recent way of this unorthodox three-year period is also the most frightening, the recession part. Weeks into 2023, layoffs from companies like Goldman Sachs, Nielsen and NBC News are either underway or set to happen.
In our world, so many media companies have already cut staff this past January:
- AMC: cut 20%
- DirecTV: 10%
- NBC Universal: seeking to eliminate $1B (BILLION!?!) across all networks
- Netflix: 450 employees
- Roku: 200 employees
- Warner Bros. Discovery: 700 positions over multiple divisions
That’s a lot of people. And it’s a lot of money being saved by these companies.
But that’s not to say that these companies won’t need help in the short term. And I think that’s where this post is going.
The easiest way for companies to keep moving forward is to understand that they still need experts and hard workers to do some of the jobs that were just eliminated. Consulting and freelance experts help with plugging the holes so the boat doesn’t sink.
And to those folks who were among the cuts, your knowledge and expertise can help so many companies out there.
In fact, it is predicted that by 2028, 90.1 million people will be freelancing in the United States, with 73.3 million people calling themselves freelancers by the end of 2023. Furthermore, a recent Fiverr survey showed 43% of companies plan to onboard freelancers while freezing hiring as a result of a recession. So don’t give up hope.
We are still living in what I describe as a “wacky” world, and what is happening today might not be happening tomorrow.