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Freelancer.com (ASX: FLN) (OTCQX: FLNCF), the world’s largest freelancing and crowdsourcing marketplace by number of users and jobs posted, today released its quarterly Fast 50 Index for Q3 2022 which reveals insights into the fastest growing freelance projects and most in-demand skills.
The index, which is based on data from 296,000 jobs posted on Freelancer.com between
The sudden surge in tech-related freelance jobs first observed in Freelancer’s Q2 2022 index, comes off the back of global tech layoffs and hiring freezes across the so-called ‘tech winter’, that started with a ‘crypto winter’, as informed by Freelancer.com in earlier Fast 50 reports. According to a tech layoff tally, more than 42,000 workers in the
Tech-related jobs dominated the rankings when comparing Q3 2022 to Q3 2021 year-on-year. Software Development jobs were the fastest growing skill (up 54.7%, from 1,587 to 2,442), while jobs for Coding ranked as the second highest growing skill (up 45.5%, from 1,004 to 1,461) and
“The macroeconomic environment, tech winter and nosebleed inflation has led to an almost daily string of announcements of layoffs. The most similar event was the Global Financial Crisis where we saw three trends: businesses looking to cut costs and going online to hire freelancers, people looking for work online and a lot of startup businesses formed to bridge people through hard times. However this was mostly contained to
These layoffs may also increase the amount of startups being founded, not only across the US but also in
Fast 50 Q3 2022 vs Q2 2022 Analysis
Employers look to freelancers to plug tech skill gaps
Overvaluations and dropping stock prices have caused mass hiring freezes and layoffs across the tech companies globally in 2022. According to online tracker Layoffs.fyi, there have been 83,173 layoffs from 661 startups this year, as of
These layoffs, which accelerated in
AJAX, which is used to develop websites, and API, which allow software programs to communicate with each other also took second and third place, respectively. Niche skills in AngularJS, a toolset for building apps, and Codeigniter, a toolset for web development, equally rose by 22% in Q3.
“Michael Milken said ‘the defining characteristic of the 21st century was the competition for intellectual capital’. There’s a chronic skill shortage in western nations, forcing businesses to go to the Internet to find talent. Freelancer.com has the largest online pool of talent in the world.” said
Projects seeking experts in
Marketing Trends - Marketers turn from SEM to SEO, YouTube & traditional
This quarter, the data revealed shifting trends in marketing and advertising. Projects for Search Engine Marketing (SEM) fell by almost a third (30.4%) in Q3 - from 2,300 jobs to 1,600 from the previous quarter. On the other hand, digital marketing, traditional marketing and YouTube jobs spiked in interest.
Most commonly, in Q3 employers are looking for support with SEO ranking. Blog Writing jobs, which are usually associated with businesses hiring freelancers to write SEO-friendly blog content, increased by 55% in Q3, from 1,058 to 1,642 projects.
Digital Marketing also saw a 23.1% increase in Q3, jumping from 1,738 to 2,141 jobs. These jobs range from hiring business consultants supporting social media strategies to SEO managers. Notably, Q3 also saw many employers turn to the platform to hire community managers, digital marketing campaign managers and social media managers.
Traditional advertising also saw an increase in Q3. Flyer Design projects increased by more than a quarter (27.5%) from 1,658 to 2,114 jobs. A similar increase was also seen for projects relating to
“With the onset of new digital marketing channels, businesses are learning that their strategies must diversify and move away from primary channels, such as SEM. Paid advertising alone is no longer the most viable alternative. What we are witnessing is demand for freelancers with skills in social media, short video platforms, earned & owned content, SEO and a whole spectrum of marketing strategies that before were in the realm of large corporates only,” said
Jobs seeking YouTube skills were the fifth fastest growing skill in Q3 2022 - growing by 32.3% from 1,138 to 1,505 jobs. Many of the jobs seeking YouTube skills are related to vertical videos and Shorts content. While there was a 10% increase in
Companies turn to freelancers for lead generation & customer support
The layoffs aren’t just affecting tech roles, but also sales and customer services roles across businesses. Over the last quarter, there was a significant increase in demand for customer service, customer support and sales-related skills on the Freelancer platform.
While virtual assistance jobs have always been a popular freelancing project type, Q3 2022 saw an increase in employers hiring virtual assistants. Jobs for Customer Support grew by 30.5% in Q3, from 1,531 to 1,998 jobs. This was also closely followed by Customer Service projects which rose by 27.4% from 1,370 to 1,746.
Lead generation and cold calling was also a popular project type in Q3. Jobs to generate Leads jumped by a quarter (25.3%), from 1,387 to 1,738. Sales specific jobs also increased by 18.7% from 2,544 to 3,020 total projects.
One boutique recruiting agency in the US successfully hired a freelancer to manage cold calling and follow ups for only
Ethereum and NFT projects continue steep decline
In Q2 2022, Freelancer reported a fall from grace for jobs relating to Bitcoin, Crypto and NFTs, which were once ranked as the fastest growing freelance jobs on the platform for 2021. It’s now Ethereum’s turns as Ethereum-related jobs plunged in Q3 2022.
The fastest falling job types on the Freelancer platform in Q3 were Solidity, a programming language used to implement smart contracts for mostly Ethereum based platforms, and Smart Contracts were - declining by -56%, from 1,422 to 613 jobs, and -49%, from 1,442 to 726 jobs, respectively.
NFTs jobs were slashed by half (49.5%) in Q3, dropping from 1,424 to only 718 in total. This trend was closely followed by jobs for Ethereum specifically, which fell by 39.9% from 1,173 jobs to only 705. Blockchain jobs also fell by 26.7%, from 3,216 in Q2 but continue to retain interest with 2,357 jobs reported in Q3.
Business cards are back in business
With corporate and networking events back in action, so are business cards. In Q3 2022, Business Card design spiked by almost one third (30%) from 1,861 to 2,427 jobs. This is the first time since the start of 2020 that projects for Business Cards have grown significantly.
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Freelancer Fast 50
The Freelancer Fast 50 index is the world’s largest forward indicator of trends in online jobs related to industries, technologies, products, and companies. The data is based on 296,000 jobs posted to the Freelancer platform between 1st July to
Fast 50 Quarterly Index – Q3 2022
Q2 2022 vs. Q3 2022 | |||
Skill | Job Count Q2 '22 | Job Count Q3 '22 | % Increase |
1082 | 1954 | 80.59% | |
AJAX | 1059 | 1763 | 66.48% |
API | 1587 | 2532 | 59.55% |
Blog Writing | 1058 | 1642 | 55.20% |
YouTube | 1138 | 1505 | 32.25% |
Customer Support | 1531 | 1998 | 30.50% |
Business Cards | 1861 | 2427 | 30.41% |
3004 | 3834 | 27.63% | |
Flyer Design | 1658 | 2114 | 27.50% |
Customer Service | 1370 | 1746 | 27.45% |
1253 | 1596 | 27.37% | |
Copy Typing | 4827 | 6147 | 27.35% |
Microsoft Office | 1041 | 1308 | 25.65% |
2240 | 2809 | 25.40% | |
Leads | 1387 | 1738 | 25.31% |
Book Writing | 1537 | 1920 | 24.92% |
Digital Marketing | 1738 | 2141 | 23.19% |
AngularJS | 2817 | 3459 | 22.79% |
Codeigniter | 1070 | 1313 | 22.71% |
Bootstrap | 1263 | 1526 | 20.82% |
Sales | 2544 | 3020 | 18.71% |
Software Development | 2069 | 2442 | 18.03% |
Creative Writing | 2122 | 2464 | 16.12% |
Artificial Intelligence | 1055 | 1223 | 15.92% |
Word | 3001 | 3433 | 14.40% |
Skill | Job Count Q3 '21 | Job Count Q3 '22 | % Increase |
Solidity | 1422 | 613 | -56.89% |
Smart Contracts | 1442 | 726 | -49.65% |
Matlab and Mathematica | 2494 | 1256 | -49.64% |
Non-fungible Tokens (NFT) | 1424 | 718 | -49.58% |
R Programming Language | 1097 | 626 | -42.94% |
Ethereum | 1173 | 705 | -39.90% |
Statistics | 2377 | 1439 | -39.46% |
Statistical Analysis | 1697 | 1032 | -39.19% |
Report Writing | 5495 | 3392 | -38.27% |
Mathematics | 2485 | 1552 | -37.55% |
Machine Learning (ML) | 3472 | 2225 | -35.92% |
Database Development | 1309 | 867 | -33.77% |
Web Scraping | 5787 | 3905 | -32.52% |
Electrical Engineering | 3381 | 2322 | -31.32% |
Microcontroller | 1833 | 1268 | -30.82% |
Research Writing | 10950 | 7580 | -30.78% |
C Programming | 7202 | 4987 | -30.76% |
Mechanical Engineering | 2228 | 1546 | -30.61% |
Legal | 1351 | 938 | -30.57% |
Search Engine Marketing | 2300 | 1600 | -30.43% |
Engineering | 4264 | 2968 | -30.39% |
Unity 3D | 2014 | 1424 | -29.29% |
Research | 5548 | 3926 | -29.24% |
Electronics | 2897 | 2066 | -28.68% |
Python | 14967 | 10745 | -28.21% |
Fast 50 - Q3 Year-on-Year Comparison
Q3 2022 vs. Q3 2021 | |||
Skill | Job Count Q3 '21 | Job Count Q3 '22 | % Increase |
Software Development | 1578 | 2442 | 54.75% |
Coding | 1004 | 1461 | 45.52% |
1111 | 1530 | 37.71% | |
Creative Design | 1070 | 1312 | 22.62% |
API | 2132 | 2532 | 18.76% |
Fashion Design | 1072 | 1247 | 16.32% |
Advertisement Design | 1516 | 1755 | 15.77% |
Flyer Design | 1980 | 2114 | 6.77% |
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About Freelancer
Twelve-time Webby award-winning Freelancer.com is the world’s largest freelancing and crowdsourcing marketplace by total number of users and projects posted. More than 60 million registered users have posted over 20 million projects and contests to date in over 2,000 areas as diverse as website development, logo design, marketing, copywriting, astrophysics, aerospace engineering and manufacturing. Freelancer owns
Contact Details
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mzitko@freelancer.com
Freelancer.com
Sebastian Siseles
+1 415-801-2271
sebastian@freelancer.com
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