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Upwork and sites that try to emulate its success see the U.S. economy as being part of a new workplace revolution. The world economy, by and large, moved from manual labor to industrial production in the 18^th and 19^th centuries. But in the 20^th century, the forefront of the economy moved from production to white collar offices. And while neither of these segments are going away, there is a new segment that isn’t reserved only for artisans anymore.

Lawrence Katz and Alan Krueger are economists at Harvard University Princeton University, respectively. They say that 94% of the net job growth in the past ten years was in the category of alternative work. That includes temps, independent contractors, and freelancers. Freelancing is the fastest growing segment of the U.S. economy.

And whereas sites such as LinkedIn were the go-to site for professional networking, Upwork is now the much more popular location. It is the hub of all things employment related. Besides hiring for remote work, many companies that recruit on Upwork offer employment on a trial basis and then, hire their freelancer full-time in the traditional sense.

Benefits for Employers and Employees

The model of using work from home remote employees provides great benefits for employer and employee alike.

The freelancer has the freedom to work as much or as little as they like. They can be self-employed and treat the online marketplace as a full-time career or they can pick up some assignments here are there for extra income.

Likewise, Employers reduce their need for paying large offices and fringe benefits. Depending on the work, they don’t even need to pay minimum wage. They can recruit anywhere in the world and pay what their applicants negotiate.

Buying and Trading Upwork Stock

Upwork expects the opening price for its shares to be $15, up from its original $10-12 range. Already, Dragoneer Investment Group, LLC has expressed an interest in buying $27 million worth of shares. Upwork will trade under the symbol UPWK. It does not expect to pay dividends to shareholders.

Disclaimer:   we intend to watch this stock closely today and many of us here plan to make an investment in it as we rely on Upwork on a daily basis for our business.   Initially the spike to $15 in the IPO caused me pause and I have chosen to not invest as much as I initially planned to at the $10-12 range.