The registered employment in Argentina has been one of the great victims of the economic crisis. According to the latest figures from the Argentine Integrated Pension System (SIPA), between April and November of last year more than 172,000 jobs were lost.Automotive, food, supermarkets, appliance chains and almost all key sectors of the economy face an adverse scenario: falling sales and rising costs, a combo that results in suspensions, layoffs and payment of salaries in installments.In this context, the "freelance" modality accentuates its growth in the country. Basically, for two reasons:- Companies reduce labor costs and can progress in projects with more agility despite the crisis- People get an extra income at times when the pocket is tight and, in addition, achieve flexibility in their schedulesThis modality is driven by new technologies. In this sense, the World Economic Forum maintains that between 20% and 30% of the active population of several developed countries perform tasks independently.These figures are validated by UpWork, one of the online platforms that brings together the largest number of freelancers, from where they indicate that more than a third of people will adopt this system in the next ten years.By the way, companies do not do anything wrong with this type of contracting. Even more so in Argentina, where the heavy tax burden means that a company has to pay close to 50% over the net salary for social contributions and contributions: if a salaried employee pays 10 pesos in hand, the company's total cost round the $ 15, without counting bonus or holiday bonus."There are more and more companies that are offering their employees in a dependency relationship working from home, less hours due to lower consumption, and charging through Monotributo, and instead of hiring blank workers, they make them invoice directly. ", says labor lawyer Juan Carlos Cerutti.On the other hand, for José Zabala, from the law firm AMZ & Asociados, he points out that there are more and more cases of companies that "outsource what they previously had in a dependency relationship, such as systems, commercial and service areas".These profiles are, in general, professionals who can perform their tasks remotely.Zabala adds that it is a phenomenon that encompasses the entire productive circle, since there is a significant number of "administrative, systems and commercial employees" who now work under this modality.Ensures that one of the alternatives that is most appealing is to pay per project. Cerutti points out that although the "salary in hand" is equalized, it derives "in a cost saving close to 50%" for the companies in concept of social work, insurance of work risks, union, vacations, bonuses and licenses.As an example, the lawyer says: "While you're ordering, you have 450 dealers in white, Rappi and Glovo have them as freelancers, which is why they are more profitable."In this framework, 53% of Argentine firms choose to add independent workers to cover some of the positions, while nine out of ten personnel managers are willing to hire freelancer.In the country, there are just over 6.1 million employees in a dependent relationship in the private sector and close to 1.6 million monotributistas. Experts estimate that approximately one third of that total performs tasks on a freelance basis, and that a large part of these contracts are carried out online.On the riseSebastián Siseles, International Vice President of Freelancer.com, says the platform currently has 32 million users worldwide. "Just three years ago, that number was exactly half," he recalls. "In Argentina, there are about 500,000 registered users," reveals iProUP.For its part, in Workana there are more than 200,000 registered Argentine workers, of which 53% are women. The tasks related to the local independent professionals are:- Design and Multimedia- IT & Programming- Marketing and sales- Administrative supportThanks to the possibilities offered by technology and remote work, there is currently a generation of professionals who perform tasks from the place that best suits their comforts."Some of the most valued aspects are time flexibility, home office, coworking collaborative spaces, the opportunity to travel and work at the same time, being able to be part of a large company without having to go to the office every day , the choice of projects, the financial administration and the organization of time ", explains Guillermo Bracciaforte, co-founder of Workana, to iProUP.As the modality of freelance work evolves, its scope is also extended. It is not only a generational issue, but also related to the lower costs that a firm must face. Furthermore, if it is about tasks that can be done with the tools that technology offers.The drivers of the growth of new work modalities in which flexibility is imposed are the product of multiple factors, such as "the search for greater productivity and efficiency or more soft issues related to employer branding and competition for talent", he says. Juan Pablo Peries, manager of Inhouse Services of Randstad, in dialogue with iProUP."As a result of the growth of new formats, the collaborators with whom the company has a permanent link are added outsourcing, temporary allocations, consultants, freelancers and strategic service providers, modern organizations have diverse sources of talent that go beyond beyond his staff, "he adds.For Siseles, the online hiring of independent workers is a natural consequence of an increasingly digitalized world and the growing rate of connectivity, both in Argentina and globally."More and more people are turning to be freelancer because they are not satisfied with many of the rules of employment in relation of dependence and seek to undertake, with greater freedom and more challenges when it comes to leaving the comfort zone," he argues.Companies view this trend with good eyes. In 2018, for example, Microsoft launched together with Upwork a kit for this modality, which provides solutions for the main points of friction faced by firms when implementing a freelance program: communications and internal awareness, collaboration at the team level, data analysis and workflow automation, among others.Freelance modeThe IMF is blunt about the labor market of the future: short-term freelance labor relations will predominate, instead of full-time dedication. In the medium term, most individuals will become providers of talent and hours of work.In this way, they will be managed as a microenterprise, in this case, of a single person. The high demand on the part of the companies challenges the professionals to reinvent themselves, to have new skills and capacities to be more competitive.At the same time that companies are looking for more and more qualified profiles, independent professionals invest in training to acquire new knowledge and offer higher qualification services. According to Workana, 92% of freelancer in Argentina has been trained in the last 12 months: half spent more than 100 hours in training activities.On the side of the companies and the State itself, it aims to find regulatory models that achieve a balance between the flexibility of these contracting modalities and, in turn, that employees are not left unprotected in matters such as sick leave, vacations or retirement.The home office also growsThe freelance option differs from the "home office" or teleworking since there is no dependency relationship, but the professional is the one who takes charge of his own social work and retirement, adhering to the Monotributo.In many cases, some independent workers get employment with companies from abroad, so they must not sign up for the simplified regime of the AFIP.Before the query of iProUP, the expert in labor law, Julián de Diego, points out that there are already 970,000 Argentines who make home office. Of this total, 170,000 directly "do not step into the office" or attend very occasionally, while the remaining 800,000 are mixed teleworkers, a system that combines remote and face-to-face tasks.In other words, 16% of the 6.1 million employees that ANSES accounts for (excluding self-employed workers) have joined the new hiring trends."The number grows at exponential speeds," says Diego, who lists the three most frequent modalities in the country:- Local: the employee has his workspace in the company and every time he goes away he resorts to the "home office"- Semitotal or half-volume: works outside the office but reports to their superiors once a week- Nomad: you can work within the company, in coworking spaces or from your home"Imagine how things have changed, from account executives to service company employees to lawyers and accountants taking advantage of the possibilities offered by new technologies," says the lawyer in dialogue with iProUP.As a derivative of the home office, the freelance modality adds adepts in the so-called economy 4.0. Does this imply an increase in job insecurity? Not necessarily. Working on your own can be very profitable, if the employee is the one who sets the conditions.