The Ever-growing Freelance Economy

Published in

BusyDAO

6 min readJan 27, 2021

Today, I would like to write more statistically as I am going to highlight key findings in the freelance sector. In today’s economy, a significant number of workers are foregoing the corporate grind and opting for freelance work instead.

Whether the move to become a free “agent” is based on choice or economic necessity, more people are now finding opportunities outside the realm of traditional jobs with established companies. The days of landing that dream job and keeping it until retirement are all gone and freelancing has become a viable option for many individuals, for some it is the only viable option. Contract work allows freelancers to set their own work schedules, manage their own workloads, and work independently.

Many freelancers would not have it any other way. Due to the growth in popularity of several digital freelancing platforms, such as Upwork, Freelancer, or Fiverr, the contingent workforce can be readily matched with companies and entrepreneurs that need short term or specialized workers.

Digital platforms enable contract workers to find more assignments, market their talents, manage various clients, and accept secure payments. These platforms also provide an escrow system where the hiring party places all or part of the freelancer’s payment for a project in an escrow account to ensure the contract worker receives compensation for their work.

Millions of people work worldwide as freelancers.

An important factor in freelance is the fact of the ongoing global pandemic COVID-19. Most companies worldwide, which did not declare bankruptcy in the first two waves, barely survive during these difficult times. Some of them had to lay off their capable and talented employees where some of them moved to the freelance sector, and they have to compete to offer their services. Many companies on these platforms are looking for freelancers who can do a particular job or service for the company without obligations associated with a full-time or part-time employee. All the above led to the increase in the below data and facts.

So, what will the rise of the freelance economy mean for the future of work?

Payoneer issued its Freelancer Income Report based on a survey of over 7,000 freelancers from 150 countries and below was found:

The Bright Young Future for Freelancers. The freelance workforce is overall very young, with nearly 70 percent of freelancers surveyed being under the age of 35, and 21 percent are under the age of 25. This youth movement is even more pronounced in Asia where 82 percent of respondents are under 35, compared to North America where the number is still high but closer to 47 percent.

How Job Satisfaction is Unlocked with Income Opportunity. While freelancers find value in the freedom and flexibility of being their own boss, happiness is most tightly correlated with income earned. The worldwide average hourly rate charged by freelancers is $28 and is significantly higher than the average salaries in many of the countries surveyed. Those individuals who work exclusively in freelancing earn a higher hourly rate and are more satisfied with their lifestyle compared to those who split their time working for a company. While freelancers are earning more, businesses are also benefiting by being able to source top-talent without concern for a location or overhead costs, increasing satisfaction on both sides of the relationship.
Important Steps Toward Wage Equality. One of the more optimistic findings from the report is that women’s participation in the freelance workforce has been gaining momentum and the average wage for females is leaps and bounds ahead of the greater workforce. Female freelancers earn on average 84 percent of men’s earnings across all fields, and while there is room for improvement, the gap is every year smaller and smaller. However, there are industry-specific nuances, and fields exist where the gender gap remains pronounced, including finance and project management fields. That said, women earn more than men in marketing and web and graphic design.

COVID-19 and Freelance

As already mentioned, “thanks” to the COVID-19 pandemic, there are more and more freelancers nowadays, but on the other side of the coin is that many freelancers had to pause their freelancing work. Those mainly affected by 60% are jobs that can’t be made remotely (like transportation, maintenance, arts & design, entertainment, personal care, etc.).

For freelance, the e-commerce model is important as 88% of the paused freelancers are likely to do freelance work in the future so the trend of freelancing will be still increasing. From statistics it is also visible that a lot of employees lost their full-time/part-time jobs (or the salary or contract was reduced) and they became freelancers — 57% of new freelancers are selling skilled services/labor and 43% unskilled.

61% of those who freelanced pre-covid and during COVID-19 feel they have the amount of work they want or more work than they want during the pandemic.
45% of skilled freelancers who were freelancing pre-covid and during COVID-19 say that they do more skilled work since the onset of the pandemic.
30% of new freelancers who started amidst COVID-19 saw a business opportunity unique to the pandemic.

So what are the key findings for the year 2020?

Based on surveys conducted by main leaders of centralized freelance platforms such as Upwork, Freelancer, and Fiverr, I consider the following points to be really important and speak for freelancers:

Freelancers represent about 35% of the global workforce.

With a total global workforce of around 3.5 billion, there are about 1.1 billion freelancers around the world. In the US, there are over 59 million freelancers (36% of American workers).

68% of freelancers claim to have taken up their work to have more flexibility in their schedules.
55% of freelancers still have other full-time jobs.

The share of full-time freelancers grew from 17% to 28% from 2014 to 2020.

68% of freelancers claimed to have started working independently in the past five years.
64% of freelancers found their respective jobs online.

Europe experienced a 45% increase in freelancers from 2014 to 2020.

48% of freelancers get paid on a fixed fee, while 29% are paid hourly, and 23% experience a mix of both.
The median hourly wage for skilled freelancers was $28.

60% of freelancers claim they’re able to make more money than they did with their previous jobs.
37% of freelancers sell unskilled services or labor, while another 28% sell goods.

Upwork has over 17 million users.
Freelancer.com has over 31 million users with more than 19,000 jobs.
Fiverr currently has over 7 million users, with writers, graphic designers, and web developers making up much of the workforce.

That’s why Busy focuses on freelance!

Countless points above interpreted that freelance business model has and will have a significant increase on the market. Despite the increasing trend, all nowadays freelance platforms are centralized and freelancers are disadvantaged as they have either to pay a membership or the fee is taken from each realized transaction.

Why do you need to pay a fee for your success?

Busy will bring a revolutionary blockchain-based decentralized freelance platform. As it will be fully decentralized, there will be no central authority and no fees at all. If you will be on the platform, you will become a part of the platform’s life-cycle and that is the most important — you will be automatically contributing to the decentralized solution. Of course, there will be many benefits! Which benefits?

I will write about them in my next articles.

Stay Busy & Join Revolution Today!

If you are interested in the Busy solution, check our website https://www.busy.technology!

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