The death of the permalancer?

Anyone who has looked for a job in media during the past year — one replete with hiring freezes, layoffs, and budget cuts — knows that he or she would be lucky to score any kind of paying job, be it an internship, freelance gig, or the editorial holy grail: a plum position on staff.

And then there are those who fall somewhere in between: the permalancer.

A freelance position with no end date gets all the superficial trappings of a staff job (full-time hours, your own cubicle with a personal computer and phone), but none of the actual benefits: health insurance, job security, sick days, vacation, or unemployment if you're let go. At best, you get to pursue your dream of working in media while honing your skills and earning enough to live in one of the most expensive cities in the world. At worst, you're treated like a glorified intern with your own phone extension. But hey, Ed's not complaining: getting a paid media gig is like scoring a seat on the subway during rush hour. It doesn't happen to most people.

But according to the NYT, even permalance jobs may be harder to come by in the next few years. Due to record budget deficits, federal and state officials are going to start targeting companies that "pass off regular employees as independent contractors."

President Obama’s 2010 budget assumes that the federal crackdown will yield at least $7 billion over 10 years. [...] One federal study concluded that employers illegally passed off 3.4 million regular workers as contractors, while the Labor Department estimates that up to 30 percent of companies misclassify employees.

While media jobs weren't cited in the article, companies ranging from Hearst to MTV are notorious for hiring permalancers. With media still recovering from the recession, Ed doubts that all of those permalance jobs will ever become staff. Heck, we'll be lucky if they don't turn them into paid internships.

What do you think Edsters? Will cutting down on permanent freelancers make it harder for whippersnappers to break into the industry? Share your own permalancing tales in the comments!