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New York City has started a new kind of program aimed at supporting and training and expanding freelance workforce. The Freelancers Hub is what it's called. It offers classes and shared office space, along with tax and legal advice for free - skills that freelancers say they don't get from a traditional education. Here's NPR's Yuki Noguchi.
YUKI NOGUCHI, BYLINE: Nicholas Mc Millian (ph) was a successful firefighter with a secure job in Trinidad and Tobago, but his passion was moviemaking. So he left it behind to study film production in New York City. Then when he started freelancing three years ago, Mc Millian found his education left lots of practical gaps.
NICHOLAS MC MILLIAN: They don't really prepare you for a career. They don't really say, all right, this is how you go out there and make money and support yourself.
NOGUCHI: Film school didn't teach Mc Millian how to create websites, set prices or write and negotiate contracts. Therein lies a growing disconnect between today's education system and the training freelancers actually need. The labor market is rapidly changing, thanks in part to growth in apps that make gig work easy to find. But workers on contract also don't have employer-provided benefits or on-the-job training. And this is of particular concern to New York City, which estimates freelancers make up nearly 40 percent of its workforce. Julie Menin is New York City Commissioner for Media and Entertainment.
JULIE MENIN: That's a number that's going to continue to rise with the growth and advent of on-demand apps and other structural changes in the economy.
NOGUCHI: To address this training shortfall, in October, the city partnered with the Freelancers Union to open the Freelancers Hub. It's targeted primarily at those in creative fields, where work is especially competitive - design, film, photography and writing. The hub is located in Brooklyn, alongside the Independent Filmmaker Project. About two-dozen workers sit at rows of desks, couches and small tables. Members can also access a small theater and classrooms. Its classes explain benefits, or stress management, its most popular. All of it, free of charge.
Caitlin Pearce is executive director of the Freelancers Union. She says freelancers need to know how to do it all - budget for taxes and health insurance, and manage workflow and attract clients. And that's not all.
CAITLIN PEARCE: How do I brand myself? What business structure should look like. How do I actually plan for success? How much income do I need to earn?
NOGUCHI: Since it opened in October, 4,000 people have joined the hub. Its regulars include software engineer Lupe Canaviri Maydana, a Bolivian native who hopes to start freelancing next month. Maydana has sought advice on work visas, legal contracts and business cards. More critically, she says the hub has helped combat her fears of working solo. She's made contacts with other freelancers, from artists to musicians and fashion models.
LUPE CANAVIRI MAYDANA: Getting to know that kind of people and the way they do their freelancing. So it's kind of a new world.
NOGUCHI: Pearce says the Freelancers Union wants to make its lectures available online, but it also wants the physical space to foster networking and friendship among freelancers.
PEARCE: Because the concept is really about finding the expertise and the resources that exist within the community already, and really tapping into it and bringing it into one central place.
NOGUCHI: All of the training classes, for example, are taught by other freelancers. That includes Brian Lee, who taught a digital marketing workshop one recent evening.
BRIAN LEE: Both of them, they used to be freelancers. One...
NOGUCHI: The room is packed with people from a huge demographic range. Lee begins by telling them, start thinking of yourself as a business.
LEE: Freelancers don't want to spend money, even if it's software or tech that can help them grow their business. I think that's a fundamental shift that we have to make because businesses grow by investing.
NOGUCHI: New York is not alone in identifying the need for workforce training targeted at freelancers and gig workers. The city of San Francisco offers online training courses for freelancers. Several companies, including General Assembly, LinkedIn and Skillshare, offer similar courses for far cheaper than a conventional college course. But members say the main benefits of the Freelancers Hub have been social. Wendy Zhao, a film producer, says being around other freelancers helps her navigate the stress of lean times when paid work isn't available.
WENDY ZHAO: I could do so much during this time instead of just being sad and lonely and desperate and depressed. Like, I can learn more things. I can write. I can practice.
NOGUCHI: And that, she says, will hopefully lead to more work. Yuki Noguchi, NPR News, New York.