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LinkedIn expands gig economy platform ProFinder throughout US

August 25, 2016

LinkedIn Corp.’s gig economy offering, ProFinder, was rolled out across the US, the company announced in a blog post Wednesday.

The service aims to connect individuals and small businesses looking for services — such as design, writing, editing, accounting, real estate and career coaching — to freelancers that provide them.

LinkedIn began a pilot of the service in October 2015, and it already has more than 50,000 freelancers across more than 140 services areas, according to the company.

Fast Company reports that LinkedIn’s ProFinder does not yet have a set business model. "We want to continue learning and iterating to ensure we get it right before instituting paywalls," a LinkedIn spokesperson told Fast Company. Currently professionals can submit up to 10 proposals for free. After the 10th job application, they'll need to subscribe to LinkedIn’s Business Plus subscription, which costs $60 per month. Eventually, the spokesperson said, LinkedIn might host payments between employers and freelancers, which would mean it could take a commission on each transaction.

Separately, LinkedIn also reported in its post that Colorado, Florida and Texas were the states with the most net growth in freelancers over the past year. New York City had the highest number of freelancers as a percentage of total workforce. It was followed by San Francisco and Portland, Ore.

LinkedIn also reported the healthcare and pharmaceutical industry had more growth in freelancers than other industries over the last five years, with 51% growth.

In its own estimate, Staffing Industry Analysts calculated the size of the gig economy workforce in the US at 29% of the total workforce.