Comment by curious_curios

There’s a whole world of unintuitive reasons for this kind of thing. Non-exhaustive list:

- Freelancers are OpEx, FTEs are CapEx. They are usually separate budgets so departments split.

- They want to maintain good relationships with the freelance companies in case they need to spin up staffing quickly with top talent in the future.

- They don’t have to pay some benefits and taxes on freelancers.

- Freelancers and consultants are often used to get tabs on ‘industry best practices’, i.e. what your competition is doing.

- Despite what you might think, they might actually be better than the FTEs, or at least perceived to be so.

- It’s easier to fire them when times get tough without as many rules and regulations.