Maybe they should consider putting full-time jobs on the endangered species list, since they are getting harder and harder to find. However, there’s no need to think that the whole employment ecosystem as a whole is going to disappear any time soon.

As the workforce is losing full-time opportunities, more part-time and freelance jobs have become available.

According to Newsweek, the number of people who work part-time, as either freelancers or as contractors has doubled from 4.5 million to approximately 8 million people in the past year.

And it’s not just a surge in the number of creative types, who have been known to live from project-to-project for most of their careers. Now the part-time and freelance markets have extended to the worlds of finance, law and human resources.

Why this shift? As businesses cut back on expenses, these reduced hours/more flexible formats provide a way to avoid shelling out for full-time benefits. Naturally, this practice has been a point of contention for a while among those working less than 40 hours a week.

People like Sara Horowitz of the Freelancer’s Union have been pressuring the Obama administration for “more non-employer mechanisms for affordable group health insurance, flexible retirement plans, and tax breaks to address the additional Social Security and Medicare taxes paid by the self-employed,” according to the Newsweek. 

It’s true that these part-time or freelance jobs will never replace the perks of a cushy, full-time job. However, part-time jobs are useful in supplementing your paycheck if your hours (or your bank statements) aren’t what you’d like them to be.

Those flexible hours that allowed companies to wriggle out of giving you benefits will now allow you to work around your current part-time job. Newsweek recommended eLance.com, a job-auction website, and snagjob.com as good places for finding a variety of part-time and freelance job postings.

So no need to worry: full-time jobs will never end up like the Dodo bird. The market is simply shifting due to the poor economy, and it will eventually shift back.

However, Newsweek predicts that when the good times do come flooding back, there will be less people running back to one solid job. There will be many who are happy with their patchwork of projects and the freedom of freelance.