Over at CNN/Money, Fortune posted a great column on whether or not it makes sense to become a consultant after a layoff.  Its a fantastic question to ask, given the challenges of finding a permanent job in this economy.

At NextUp Careers, we’ve seen a significant increase in the discussion regarding the use of temporary staff and independent contractors.  While Reliability Engineering and Predictive Maintenance have always had its share of contractors, its becoming increasingly clear that this may no longer be an exception, but may become an expectation.  In discussing the potential for hiring, many of the company’s we have talked to have indicated a strong desire to have a variable workforce available to it.

As an example, one company recently explained to us that for every five reliability engineers they will hire this year, only one of them is likely to be a full-time position.  This is a significant change in their business model and one partly driven by what they saw happen in the past year and a half.  As this video attests, freelancing may become a way of life for more Americans than ever.

As this trend becomes to gain momentum, we anticipate that it will have a significant impact on reliability engineers and predictive maintenance professionals

What do you think?