Wall Street Journal (05/28/13) Geoffrey A. Fowler; Brenda Cronin

Websites that connect workers with employers and customers, such as TaskRabbit, the digital-work marketplace Elance, ride-on-demand service Lyft, and craft marketplace Etsy are growing. Elance allows freelancers to bid for jobs they can complete over the Internet, and involves more than 500,000 businesses and two million freelancers.

These emerging platforms are encouraging a shift toward freelance work, and staffing firms are working to adapt. For example, ManpowerGroup is now working with OnForce Inc., a site that matches independent contractors with technology tasks.