Freelancers Are Thriving

Yes, unemployment is still hovering around 10 percent in the U.S., but that doesn’t change the fact that things have been quite sunny for freelancers, according to Elance.

The company’s Online Talent Report reveals that from January to March 2010, there were 106,917 freelancers on Elance and their total earnings were $260 million.

There were 103,799 employers on the network, 319,103 jobs posted within the last year and 32,132 jobs posted within the last month as of the end of the first quarter.

“Based on the company’s report, it appears that businesses are in fact leaning more toward project-based hires, which give them more flexibility while also lowering costs,” notes Cody Barbierri at VentureBeat.

Elance broke their analysis down by industry category. For information technology, PHP was the top skill in demand, followed by HTML, MYSQL, CSS, WordPress, JavaScript, AJAX, Flash, Joomla! and iPhone.

India was the top IT-performing country, followed the Ukraine, Pakistan, the U.S. and Russia. IT freelancers (or providers, as Elance calls them) earned $4.6 million in March, up 18.1 percent from February.

For the creative industry, graphic design was the top skill in demand, followed by article writing, content writing, Photoshop, Web content, Illustrator, English translation, creative writing, copywriting and logo design.

The U.S. was the top creative-performing country, followed by India, the U.K., Canada and Argentina. Creative freelancers earned $2.0 million in March, up 20.5 percent from the previous month.

For the marketing industry, SEO was the most in-demand skill, followed by Internet marketing, lead generation, social media, advertising, sales, marketing strategy, e-mail marketing, market research and direct marketing.

India was the top marketing-performing country, followed by the U.S., Pakistan, Canada and the U.K. Marketing freelancers earned $577,756 in March, up 37.0 percent from February.

For the operations industry, data entry was the top skill in demand, followed by administrative assistant, research, general computer skills, Microsoft Excel, e-mail handling, general office skills, word processing, typing and customer support.

India was the top operations-performing country, followed by the U.S., Pakistan, the Philippines and Sweden. Operations freelancers earned $536,415 in March, up 23.6 percent from February.

New York City was the top U.S. city by freelancer earnings, followed by Los Angeles and Dallas. California was the top state, followed by Texas and New York, while Idaho was the top state on the rise.

Sources:</strong

http://www.elance.com/p/online_talent_report_it.html

http://venturebeat.com/2010/04/12/elance-report-freelance-is-the-new-full-time/