While full-time job growth stalls, the ranks of the self-employed are growing briskly. According to the author of a how-to guide to commercial writing, freelance writers are finding lucrative ($60-80/hour) opportunities with downsized corporations large and small, reluctant as yet to rehire staff. It all adds up to a flexible, profitable home-based career direction.

A year ago, Michele Ryan was an at-home Mom, content to donate her writing abilities to the PTA or local civic association. Sensing the economic time was right, she jumped into lucrative freelancing. Today, she helps several local healthcare organizations craft their marketing materials, and gets paid $75 an hour to do it. And she’s not alone. While the economic recovery continues to deliver mixed signals, many downsized companies are turning to experienced freelancers to handle their written communications needs.

“Why spend 20-25+ hours slaving over a magazine article that might pay a flat $300 and then fight for your money, when you could do a corporate project in a fraction of the time, bill all your hours at an average $60-80/hour and get paid in 30 days?” So comments Peter Bowerman, Atlanta-based author of The Well-Fed Writer: Financial Self-Sufficiency as a Freelance Writer in Six Months or Less, a step-by-step how-to guide on writing for corporations and creative entities of all sizes.

Current employment stats seem to underscore the viability and strength of the self-employment movement. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, in November, jobs grew by 57,000, one-third of analyst projections, while the self-employed ranks swelled by 156,000, a figure cited by The New York Times as, “a primary reason that the unemployment rate dropped to 5.9 percent.” BLS stats show the economy adding only 1,000 jobs in December. 150,000 were projected.

“Companies that scaled back during the recession are gun-shy of rebuilding too fast,” observes Bowerman. “Hiring freelancers just makes good economic sense. They don’t have to pay salaries or benefits, they buy only the services they need, when they need them, they get access to a wide range of talent and they benefit from fresh outsider perspectives.”

Veteran commercial freelance writer Bob Bly, author of 50+ writing titles, says of the field: “I know of no other arena of writing so lucrative yet so easy to get started in.” With no writing background, paid professional writing experience or industry contacts, Bowerman was paying all his bills through commercial writing in four months. “If you’re a decent writer and you dream of getting out of the rat race, working from home and having time for a life, this is a great option.”