AQIII Reveals Portrait of IT Freelancers in Quebec

MONTREAL, Oct. 30, 2012 /CNW Telbec/ - The report on the AQIII's annual survey is the biggest source of information available on self-employed computer specialists, their profiles and their working conditions. It is the result of the cooperation of 462 IT freelancers belonging to the AQIII, who responded to the survey last summer from among its 1,500 members.

There are some 16,000 information and communication technology freelancers in Quebec, representing approximately 10% of the sector's total labor force.

The average seniority, as a self-employed worker, of the IT freelancers who took part in the survey was over 10 years. They were mostly seniors (92%) working for themselves; a majority of them (80%) were 35 to 54 years old.

The greatest concentrations of IT freelancers are found in the major urban centers of Montreal (35%), Quebec City (20%) and Montérégie (26%), which comes as no surprise since the largest number of mandates are concentrated there.

An increase in self-employed workers (19% who have been working for themselves for less than a year) was noted, compared to preceding years, which leads one to believe that more and more people are going the entrepreneurship route.

The majority of them are sole proprietorships (71%), some have one employee (22%) and a large number use no outside subcontractors (75%). They are known as micro-enterprises.

We identified three sectors where self-employed workers are concentrated: finance and insurance (48%), public or parapublic (31%) and information and communication technology (31%). There are almost as many generalists (52%) as specialists (48%).

Those professionals work mainly on contracts with terms of a few days to a few months and bill their work on a fixed price basis, exploiting their know-how in IT departments for a variety of organizations. Their annual gross revenues usually exceed $100,000 (81%), an amount from which operating costs must be subtracted, and they charge an hourly rate generally ranging from $61 to $130 depending on the specialties. The hourly rates tend to show a slight drop compared to last year.

They generally work on a few contracts a year (from one to three contracts for 69%), which usually last from one month to one year (65%). The average length of the contracts is trending downward.

Most of the contracts are obtained via an intermediary (78%). Those intermediaries subcontract the services of the IT freelancers and resell them to their clients, or to the next intermediary. Intermediaries are IT service providers that do not have the resources with the required profile among their available employees (consulting firm), or they are even purely commercial companies that just place IT freelancers (placement firm).

Complete report (members only)

About the AQIII

Founded in November 1993, the Quebec Association of IT Freelancers (AQIII) now has over 1,600 self-employed members directly related to information technology and communication  technology (ICT). Its mission is to bring together as many ICT freelancers as possible to enjoy the benefits of a solid network while remaining free to work independently.

SOURCE: Association québécoise des informaticiennes et informaticiens indépendants

Geneviève Dufour
Coordinator, Events and Communications
Association québécoise des informaticiennes et informaticiens indépendants (AQIII)
514.388.2483 / 1.888.858.7777
[email protected] | www.aqiii.org