Portfolio workers fail to emerge...

Despite the efforts of many ED colleagues in the mid 1990s to latch onto the idea that portfolio working would be the 'next big thing' stumbling and mumbling finds a lack of increase in 'teleworking'... more...

However, teleworking is still rare. In the US, there are 24.1 million teleworkers. That's less than one-in-five of all workers. And this includes people who work at home for just one day a month.
UK figures are only available for 2001. They show a mere 2.2 million teleworkers, one-in-14 of all workers. And that includes those who work just one day a week at home.

This generally ties in with static self employment in the UK over the past 10 years - it hasn't increased much. Methodologically its difficult to try and separate out genuine portfolio workers from those self employed folks on FT contracts working in offices, such as the one I am sitting in now...

I am not surprised though - its a pretty much a well experienced professional that could possibly be a portfolio worker and be able to get the business and do it to make a decent living. There's a few consultants and journos out there and some other trades that lend themselves to this.

Unsurprisingly the rising tide of the knowledge economy is still awaited to make these dreams come true...