Here’s a story that’s not exactly a news flash, but it is another one of those signs of the times that pop up daily as the economy goes slip-sliding away. This one is courtesy of The Miami Herald, and the headline says it all: Freelancing—A Real Option.

“As times get tougher, many are turning to freelancing and contract work, transforming a trend that was once a lifestyle choice into a matter of economic survival,” the story says. “Frustrated trying to find full-time work, more people are piecing together a living doing projects, consultancies and part-time gigs from home for an outside employer.”

Freelancing has long been a lifestyle choice for many who wanted to work on their own schedules, doing what suited them. But beyond that, freelancing has always been a refuge for people who, for one reason or another, found they just didn’t fit neatly into the daily workplace.

I’ve known people who were impossible-to-manage lunatics in a traditional work setting who suddenly became mellow, professional and productive after they went the freelance route. There is one guy who freelances a little for Workforce Management who used to work with me as a staffer at a daily newspaper. In that environment, he was terribly unfocused and unproductive. And while I don’t know how he works at home, when he writes for me now, he hits his deadline most of the time and is a pleasure to work with. That’s not something I could have said when we worked together in a traditional boss-employee structure.

What is interesting to me about the Miami Herald story is how it captures the growing trend of freelancing as a legitimate option for so many of today’s unemployed. “Today, the new project-to-project, paycheck-to-paycheck economy crosses the spectrum from low-wage workers to highly paid professionals in a variety of industries,” the newspaper says. “People are finding short-term work on job boards, websites, professional associations and even from former employers.”

For those who take up freelancing by necessity, not choice, it can be a far-from-perfect option, of course. Without an employer, no one is there to pay for health benefits, sick days, coffee or wifi, for example. But it does beat the alternative of cat food atop a Ritz cracker.

And how many people are we talking here? No one really knows, but the Herald story says, “Not counting the recent surge, freelancers made up 30 percent of all workers, according to the Freelancers Union.”

I suspect that this 30 percent number doesn’t take into account all the people who may be poking around the edges of freelancing, folks who have lost their jobs and are toying with the option. Plus, people move in and out of freelancing as their personal situations change. I’ve known a lot of new mothers who used freelancing a short-term solution in the battle to balance a new baby and the need to get back to work.

“The big question,” the Herald story asked, “is whether this trend is long term or whether freelancing will fade as the economy strengthens and full-time jobs become available.” I don’t think there’s a good answer for that, but I do know this: If people can be successful working for themselves without the BS you get in a traditional workplace, I bet they’ll be more than happy to kiss that old daily workplace life goodbye.

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