Rieva Lesonsky reports on the The Freelance Economy: Is This the Future of Work?. Small companies are more likely to contract out work to consultants on a as needed bases to keep expenses low. As a result, startups have formed to help freelances or free agents, and clients find each other. This phenomenon appears to be a long term trend that started in the 1990 as observed by Dannel Pink in his book Free Agent Nation (recommended read).