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Freelancer.com (ASX:FLN) (OTCQX: FLNCF), the world’s largest freelancing andcrowdsourcing marketplace by number of users and jobs posted, todayreleased its quarterly report revealing the most in-demand online jobson the platform for Q3 2023.
The Fast 50 Q3 2023 report, a quarterly datasetranking the fastest growing and falling jobs on the platform, analyzedover 277,000 jobs posted by employers to Freelancer.com betweenJuly and September 2023. According to the data, the fastest growingfreelance jobs by percentage growth in Q3 2023 were mostly writing,content creation and marketing related.
Rank | Skill | Growth | Q22023 | Q32023 |
1 | Copy Typing | +28.7% | 6,381 | 8,213 |
2 | Microsoft Word | +24.7% | 4,396 | 5,485 |
3 | Search Engine Marketing | +24.1% | 2,321 | 2,881 |
4 | Copywriting | +23.8% | 8,737 | 10,817 |
5 | Ghostwriting | +23.1% | 6,377 | 7,852 |
As AI continues to advance, the need for humancreativity remains strong. Employers are once again seekingfreelancers to support with Creative Writing and Content Writingprojects, which are up 22.4% and 19.4% respectively.
A surge in demand forwriting skills across the platform means there were more than 10,000additional writing projects available in Q3 2023, which were already atrending skill evident in the previousquarter .
The Q3 2023 data also indicates a consistent trend inbusinesses seeking freelance marketing support, with Search EngineMarketing (up 24.1%), Videography (up 17.4%) and Telemarketing (up16.5%) seeing notable growth across the quarter. This aligns with theprevious quarter's emphasis on business marketingactivities.
“OurFreelancer Fast 50 Report is a forward leading indicator of the skillsand expertise businesses need today. Artificial Intelligence ispowering a boom in content creation, particularly focusing on writing,marketing and video production skills” said Matt Barrie, ChiefExecutive at Freelancer .“Generative AI is superskilling freelancers and their ability toproduce extremely high quality content and faster than ever before.Tools like ChatGPT and Bard have changed the game when it comes toproducing and refining written content, while advances in video AIsuch as Runway Gen-2, HeyGen and Pika Labs means that video productionand editing can be done with a click of a button.”
Growth in skills likeUser Interface / IA (up 17.4% from 3,071 to 3,607) and UX / UserExperience (up 13.9% from 1,193 to 1,359) highlight the importance ofuser-centric design in today's digital landscape.
Data Mining (up 14.9%from 2,374 to 2,728) and Data Processing (up 10% from 11,013 to12,115) were also amongst the top growing jobs. These skills are oftenassociated with Sales functions and Lead Generation, which are alsogrowing in the quarter, up 13.3% and 11.4% respectively. By leveragingfreelancers to research leads, businesses can operate more efficientlyand focus more on relationship building in the sales process.
Design, Marketing andVideo Creation Jobs Lead Year-on-Year Growth
Several skills havesurged in demand when comparing Q3 2022 and Q3 2023. Jobs for UserInterface (UI) Design have doubled, growing by 101.9% to 3,607 from1,786 in the same period last year. Search Engine Marketing jobs grew80.4% (from 1,597 to 2,881) and Videography jumped by 77.1% (from2,716 to 4,809).
Rank | Skill | Growth | Q22023 | Q32023 |
1 | User Interface / IA | +101.9% | 1,786 | 3,607 |
2 | Search EngineMarketing | +80.4% | 1,597 | 2,881 |
3 | Videography | +77.1% | 2,716 | 4,809 |
4 | Microsoft Word | +61.3% | 3,400 | 5,485 |
5 | Video Production | +58.1% | 4,472 | 7,071 |
Fastest Falling Jobsof Q3 2023
Therecent data highlights a shift in the demand for specific technicalskills, which sawa significant increase last year as many tech companies laidoff technical staff. There's a noticeable decline in jobs forcertain established programming languages and frameworks.
For instance, Matlab andMathematica saw a 25.1% decrease (from 1,349 to 1,011 jobs).Similarly, projects requiring skills in AngularJS jobs dropped by23.5% (from 1,722 to 1,318), while those requiring Django expertsexperienced a decline of 23.4% (from 1,216 to 932). C Programming, C++Programming, and Python, which were all in-demand skills in Q32022 , also all decreased on the platform in Q3 2023.
While algorithms remainintegral to many processes, there's been a reduction inspecialized roles in this domain. This trend is evident in thedecrease in demand for Algorithm skills, which saw a decrease of 22.5%(from 1,438 to 1,114 jobs). This might be a consequence of the adventof more intuitive tools and platforms that simplify algorithmictasks.
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Fast 50 Q1 2023 - Data Analysis
Writing Jobs Show NoSign Of Slowing Down
The introduction of highly sophisticated and powerfulgenerative AI tools have led many experts and commentators to predict that skills such as writing will be replaced by AI. However, thelatest Fast 50 Q3 data demonstrates that writing jobs are here tostay, as content writing, creative writing, copy typing andghostwriting jobs increase by more than 20% over the lastquarter.
Theseskills continue to flourish after reporting growth in the previousquarter on Freelancer.com , withCreative Writing ranked as the fastest growing skills in Q2 2023 (up58%, from 1,868 to 2,961).
An Increase in writing skills for two quarters in arow suggest that businesses are placing more emphasis on contentcreation by hiring freelancers to write articles and produce creativecontent.
CopyTyping, the fastest growing skill for Q3’23 (up 28.7% from 6,381 to8,213) encompasses all types of jobs from data entry to helping writee-books to transcription and typist projects. While technical projectsdo require degrees and past experience, most copy typing jobs can beperformed by freelancers with no prior knowledge, making it alucrative side hustle for freelancers globally.
AI’s Impact onWhitecollar Jobs
While writing jobs continue to flourish over the past 6 months,there is a need to understand how generative AI will impact jobs andvarious freelancing skills. In a longform essay titled ‘ AIknow what you did last summer ’ , Freelancer.com CEO MattBarrie discusses the bleeding edge of AI technology and how hepredicts these will go on the shape white-collar jobs. Barrie suggeststhat to be competitive in a world of AI, workers will need to adapt ormove up the stack: “Those in white collar jobs will need to move‘up the stack’. Illustrators become cinematographers. Writersbecome editors. Software developers become product managers. Gradstudents now run a research group.”
Barrie also highlights that there is a majoropportunity for freelancers, arguing that AI-powered freelancers willultimately be the winners as they have the ability to compete againstmiddle class workforces all around the world.
AI’s impact on workproductivity is evident in a recent AIstudy conducted by Freelancer.com which found that in a surveyof over 1,300 US workers, a majority of those US workers (75%) areusing generative AI tools in their work. One in three (33%) workersare using AI tools all the time in their work, while one quarter of USworkers (25%) are using these tools sometimes and one sixth (16%)admit to never using AI at work.
Marketing & Video Production Sustain Growth,Growing Every Quarter in 2023
Marketing and Video Production skills are one ofthe most in-demand skill categories on the platform, with data showingthey’ve now grown every quarter since the beginning of the year.Search Engine Marketing (up 24.1%, from 2,321 to 2,881) ranked as thethird fastest growing skill on the platform. Telemarketing (up 16.5%,from 1,054 to 1,228) has grown in Q3 as businesses turn towards moretraditional marketing tactics. Sustained growth in different types ofmarketing skills means there are many opportunities for skilledfreelancers to find unique projects on the platform.
As for video production,not only is the skill up quarter-on-quarter, but both Video Productionand Videography have almost doubled when compared to the same timelast year, up 58.1% and 77.1% respectively.
The surge in freelancervideo production jobs can be attributed to the booming demand foronline content, especially on platforms like YouTube (up 10.3%, from1,174 to 1,295 jobs in Q3) and TikTok. As content is a staple in manymarketing strategies, businesses are turning to freelancers to helpthem produce content, boosting this as a potential category forworkers.
Businesses Delegating Sales Functions toFreelancers
Asfound in the Freelancer.com World’s Most Boring Job research , businesses often delegateresearch heavy tasks to on-demand freelancers. In turn, this allowsbusinesses the ability to operate more efficiently and focus on moreimpact-based tasks.
A unique trend uncovered in the Fast 50 Q3 2023 shows thatbusinesses are leaning on freelancers to help with the researchportion of the sales function. Sales and Lead Generation ranked assome of the fastest growing jobs in the quarter, up 13.3% and 11.4%respectively. Interestingly, Sales and Lead Generation both featuredin the top 25 fastest growing jobs in Q2 2023.
Growth in sales and leadgeneration is an example of how businesses are employing freelancersto help them streamline the sales process.
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Freelancer Fast 50
The Freelancer Fast 50report is the world’s largest forward indicator of trends in onlinejobs related to industries, technologies, products, and companies. Thedata is based on 277,000 jobs posted to the Freelancer.com platformbetween July 1 to September 30 2023.
Fast 50 Q3 2022 vs Q3 2023
FastestGrowing Jobs - Q2 2023 vs. Q3 2023 | ||||
Rank | Skill | Job Count Q3 '22 | Job Count Q3 '23 | % Increase |
1 | User Interface/ IA | 1786 | 3607 | 101.9% |
2 | Search EngineMarketing | 1597 | 2881 | 80.4% |
3 | Videography | 2716 | 4809 | 77.1% |
4 | MicrosoftWord | 3400 | 5485 | 61.3% |
5 | VideoProduction | 4472 | 7071 | 58.1% |
6 | Web Search | 4107 | 6353 | 54.7% |
7 | VideoEditing | 5983 | 8894 | 48.7% |
8 | Photography | 2206 | 3275 | 48.5% |
9 | CreativeWriting | 2443 | 3613 | 47.9% |
10 | Data Mining | 1860 | 2728 | 46.7% |
Fast 50 Q2 2023 vs Q3 2023 Data
FastestGrowing Jobs - Q2 2023 vs. Q3 2023 | ||||
Rank | Skill | Job Count Q2 '23 | Job Count Q3 '23 | % Increase |
1 | CopyTyping | 6381 | 8213 | 28.7% |
2 | Word | 4396 | 5485 | 24.8% |
3 | Search EngineMarketing | 2321 | 2881 | 24.1% |
4 | Copywriting | 8737 | 10817 | 23.8% |
5 | Ghostwriting | 6377 | 7852 | 23.1% |
6 | CreativeWriting | 2952 | 3613 | 22.4% |
7 | Content Writing | 10718 | 12794 | 19.4% |
8 | User Interface/ IA | 3071 | 3607 | 17.5% |
9 | Videography | 4096 | 4809 | 17.4% |
10 | Telemarketing | 1054 | 1228 | 16.5% |
11 | DataMining | 2374 | 2728 | 14.9% |
12 | Shopify Templates | 1373 | 1566 | 14.1% |
13 | UX / UserExperience | 1193 | 1359 | 13.9% |
14 | T-Shirt Design | 2020 | 2301 | 13.9% |
15 | Sales | 3218 | 3647 | 13.3% |
16 | | 2847 | 3208 | 12.7% |
17 | Leads | 1654 | 1843 | 11.4% |
18 | Photography | 2943 | 3275 | 11.3% |
19 | Excel | 15281 | 17001 | 11.3% |
20 | Video Production | 6363 | 7071 | 11.1% |
21 | HomeDesign | 1259 | 1399 | 11.1% |
22 | Corporate Identity Design | 3535 | 3927 | 11.1% |
23 | Research | 4870 | 5377 | 10.4% |
24 | YouTube | 1174 | 1295 | 10.3% |
25 | DataProcessing | 11013 | 12115 | 10.0% |
FastestFalling Jobs - Q2 2023 vs. Q3 2023 | ||||
Rank | Skill | Job Count Q2 '23 | Job Count Q3 '23 | % Decrease |
1 | Matlab andMathematica | 1349 | 1011 | -25.1% |
2 | AngularJS | 1722 | 1318 | -23.5% |
3 | Django | 1216 | 932 | -23.4% |
4 | Algorithm | 1438 | 1114 | -22.5% |
5 | CustomerService | 1338 | 1068 | -20.2% |
6 | C Programming | 4550 | 3643 | -19.9% |
7 | Microcontroller | 1237 | 991 | -19.9% |
8 | .NET | 2230 | 1800 | -19.3% |
9 | Electrical Engineering | 2468 | 2001 | -18.9% |
10 | ReportWriting | 3547 | 2892 | -18.5% |
11 | Mathematics | 1415 | 1159 | -18.1% |
12 | Electronics | 2191 | 1822 | -16.8% |
13 | C++Programming | 3983 | 3340 | -16.1% |
14 | API | 1105 | 927 | -16.1% |
15 | Engineering | 2933 | 2470 | -15.8% |
16 | MachineLearning (ML) | 2238 | 1890 | -15.6% |
17 | Flutter | 2161 | 1830 | -15.3% |
18 | WebDevelopment | 1187 | 1011 | -14.8% |
19 | Java | 6303 | 5373 | -14.8% |
20 | WebHosting | 1943 | 1662 | -14.5% |
21 | Customer Support | 1544 | 1324 | -14.3% |
22 | BusinessPlans | 1237 | 1075 | -13.1% |
23 | Research Writing | 7218 | 6310 | -12.6% |
24 | ASP.NET | 1033 | 907 | -12.2% |
25 | Python | 10560 | 9283 | -12.09% |
AboutFreelancer
Twelve-time Webby award-winning Freelancer.com isthe world’s largest freelancing and crowdsourcing marketplace bytotal number of users and projects posted. More than 69 millionregistered users have posted over 23.1 million projects and conteststo date in over 2,000 areas as diverse as website development, logodesign, marketing, copywriting, astrophysics, aerospace engineeringand manufacturing. Freelancer owns Escrow.com, the leading provider ofsecure online payments and online transaction management for consumersand businesses on the Internet with over US$5 billion in transactionssecured. Freelancer also owns Freightlancer & Loadshift,enterprise freight marketplaces with over 550 million kilometers offreight posted since inception. Freelancer Limited is listed on theAustralian Securities Exchange under the ticker ASX:FLN and is quotedon OTCQX Best market under the ticker FLNCF.
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ContactDetails
Freelancer.com
Marko Zitko
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