In Alaska, 7.2 percent of the population – 50,000 plus workers – is currently self-employed; however, the portion of that number representing independent workers is not tracked. Our state is ranked fourth in the Tax Foundation’s 2015 State Business Tax Climate Index, which identifies states with the most competitive business tax systems; Alaska’s rank is attributed in part to the absence of both state sales tax and individual income tax. Additionally, the Kauffman Foundation ranks Alaska seventh in the country for startup activity (down from 2014’s second place rank, but still respectable). Although neither ranking is specific to independent workers, it's not a great leap to conclude that Alaska offers a fairly healthy business environment for professionals making a go of it on their own.
In Alaska, 7.2 percent of the population – 50,000 plus workers – is currently self-employed
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In Here’s Why the Freelancer Economy is on the Rise, Brendon Schrader cites corporate downsizing, shifting economic conditions, and employee dissatisfaction as reasons more and more people are choosing independent work, but writes that access to coworking spaces and new platforms for pairing talent with business “have slowly fueled the trend in a much bigger way, lowering the barriers that once made independent contracting much more challenging.”
In Anchorage, a city known for lagging behind the rest of the country (whether or not this is actually true is debatable), do coworking spaces and talent matching platforms make the same kind of impact?