Demand for Online Writing and Content Creation Jobs Intensifies, finds Freelancer.com

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 report revealing the most in-demand online jobs on the platform for Q3 2023.

The Fast 50 Q3 2023 report, a quarterly dataset ranking the fastest growing and falling jobs on the platform, analyzed over 277,000 jobs posted by employers to Freelancer.com between July and September 2023. According to the data, the fastest growing freelance jobs by percentage growth in Q3 2023 were mostly writing, content creation and marketing related.

Rank

Skill

Growth

Q2 2023

Q3 2023

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 human creativity remains strong. Employers are once again seeking freelancers to support with Creative Writing and Content Writing projects, which are up 22.4% and 19.4% respectively.

A surge in demand for writing skills across the platform means there were more than 10,000 additional writing projects available in Q3 2023, which were already a trending skill evident in the previous quarter.

The Q3 2023 data also indicates a consistent trend in businesses seeking freelance marketing support, with Search Engine Marketing (up 24.1%), Videography (up 17.4%) and Telemarketing (up 16.5%) seeing notable growth across the quarter. This aligns with the previous quarter's emphasis on business marketing activities.

“Our Freelancer Fast 50 Report is a forward leading indicator of the skills and expertise businesses need today. Artificial Intelligence is powering a boom in content creation, particularly focusing on writing, marketing and video production skills” said Matt Barrie, Chief Executive at Freelancer. “Generative AI is superskilling freelancers and their ability to produce extremely high quality content and faster than ever before. Tools like ChatGPT and Bard have changed the game when it comes to producing and refining written content, while advances in video AI such as Runway Gen-2, HeyGen and Pika Labs means that video production and editing can be done with a click of a button.”

Growth in skills like User Interface / IA (up 17.4% from 3,071 to 3,607) and UX / User Experience (up 13.9% from 1,193 to 1,359) highlight the importance of user-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 to 12,115) were also amongst the top growing jobs. These skills are often associated with Sales functions and Lead Generation, which are also growing in the quarter, up 13.3% and 11.4% respectively. By leveraging freelancers to research leads, businesses can operate more efficiently and focus more on relationship building in the sales process.

Design, Marketing and Video Creation Jobs Lead Year-on-Year Growth

Several skills have surged in demand when comparing Q3 2022 and Q3 2023. Jobs for User Interface (UI) Design have doubled, growing by 101.9% to 3,607 from 1,786 in the same period last year. Search Engine Marketing jobs grew 80.4% (from 1,597 to 2,881) and Videography jumped by 77.1% (from 2,716 to 4,809).

Rank

Skill

Growth

Q2 2023

Q3 2023

1

User Interface / IA

+101.9%

1,786

3,607

2

Search Engine Marketing

+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 Jobs of Q3 2023

The recent data highlights a shift in the demand for specific technical skills, which saw a significant increase last year as many tech companies laid off technical staff. There's a noticeable decline in jobs for certain established programming languages and frameworks.

For instance, Matlab and Mathematica saw a 25.1% decrease (from 1,349 to 1,011 jobs). Similarly, projects requiring skills in AngularJS jobs dropped by 23.5% (from 1,722 to 1,318), while those requiring Django experts experienced a decline of 23.4% (from 1,216 to 932). C Programming, C++ Programming, and Python, which were all in-demand skills in Q3 2022, also all decreased on the platform in Q3 2023.

While algorithms remain integral to many processes, there's been a reduction in specialized roles in this domain. This trend is evident in the decrease 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 advent of more intuitive tools and platforms that simplify algorithmic tasks.

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Fast 50 Q1 2023 - Data Analysis

Writing Jobs Show No Sign Of Slowing Down

The introduction of highly sophisticated and powerful generative AI tools have led many experts and commentators to predict that skills such as writing will be replaced by AI. However, the latest Fast 50 Q3 data demonstrates that writing jobs are here to stay, as content writing, creative writing, copy typing and ghostwriting jobs increase by more than 20% over the last quarter.

These skills continue to flourish after reporting growth in the previous quarter on Freelancer.com, with Creative Writing ranked as the fastest growing skills in Q2 2023 (up 58%, from 1,868 to 2,961).

An Increase in writing skills for two quarters in a row suggest that businesses are placing more emphasis on content creation by hiring freelancers to write articles and produce creative content.

Copy Typing, the fastest growing skill for Q3’23 (up 28.7% from 6,381 to 8,213) encompasses all types of jobs from data entry to helping write e-books to transcription and typist projects. While technical projects do require degrees and past experience, most copy typing jobs can be performed by freelancers with no prior knowledge, making it a lucrative side hustle for freelancers globally.

AI’s Impact on Whitecollar Jobs

While writing jobs continue to flourish over the past 6 months, there is a need to understand how generative AI will impact jobs and various freelancing skills. In a longform essay titled ‘AI know what you did last summer’ , Freelancer.com CEO Matt Barrie discusses the bleeding edge of AI technology and how he predicts these will go on the shape white-collar jobs. Barrie suggests that to be competitive in a world of AI, workers will need to adapt or move up the stack: “Those in white collar jobs will need to move ‘up the stack’. Illustrators become cinematographers. Writers become editors. Software developers become product managers. Grad students now run a research group.”

Barrie also highlights that there is a major opportunity for freelancers, arguing that AI-powered freelancers will ultimately be the winners as they have the ability to compete against middle class workforces all around the world.

AI’s impact on work productivity is evident in a recent AI study conducted by Freelancer.com which found that in a survey of over 1,300 US workers, a majority of those US workers (75%) are using generative AI tools in their work. One in three (33%) workers are using AI tools all the time in their work, while one quarter of US workers (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 of the most in-demand skill categories on the platform, with data showing they’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 the third fastest growing skill on the platform. Telemarketing (up 16.5%, from 1,054 to 1,228) has grown in Q3 as businesses turn towards more traditional marketing tactics. Sustained growth in different types of marketing skills means there are many opportunities for skilled freelancers to find unique projects on the platform.

As for video production, not only is the skill up quarter-on-quarter, but both Video Production and Videography have almost doubled when compared to the same time last year, up 58.1% and 77.1% respectively.

The surge in freelancer video production jobs can be attributed to the booming demand for online content, especially on platforms like YouTube (up 10.3%, from 1,174 to 1,295 jobs in Q3) and TikTok. As content is a staple in many marketing strategies, businesses are turning to freelancers to help them produce content, boosting this as a potential category for workers.

Businesses Delegating Sales Functions to Freelancers

As found in the Freelancer.com World’s Most Boring Job research, businesses often delegate research heavy tasks to on-demand freelancers. In turn, this allows businesses the ability to operate more efficiently and focus on more impact-based tasks.

A unique trend uncovered in the Fast 50 Q3 2023 shows that businesses are leaning on freelancers to help with the research portion of the sales function. Sales and Lead Generation ranked as some of the fastest growing jobs in the quarter, up 13.3% and 11.4% respectively. Interestingly, Sales and Lead Generation both featured in the top 25 fastest growing jobs in Q2 2023.

Growth in sales and lead generation is an example of how businesses are employing freelancers to help them streamline the sales process.

######

Freelancer Fast 50

The Freelancer Fast 50 report is the world’s largest forward indicator of trends in online jobs related to industries, technologies, products, and companies. The data is based on 277,000 jobs posted to the Freelancer.com platform between July 1 to September 30 2023.

Fast 50 Q3 2022 vs Q3 2023

Fastest Growing 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 Engine Marketing

1597

2881

80.4%

3

Videography

2716

4809

77.1%

4

Microsoft Word

3400

5485

61.3%

5

Video Production

4472

7071

58.1%

6

Web Search

4107

6353

54.7%

7

Video Editing

5983

8894

48.7%

8

Photography

2206

3275

48.5%

9

Creative Writing

2443

3613

47.9%

10

Data Mining

1860

2728

46.7%

Fast 50 Q2 2023 vs Q3 2023 Data

Fastest Growing Jobs - Q2 2023 vs. Q3 2023

Rank

Skill

Job Count Q2 '23

Job Count Q3 '23

% Increase

1

Copy Typing

6381

8213

28.7%

2

Word

4396

5485

24.8%

3

Search Engine Marketing

2321

2881

24.1%

4

Copywriting

8737

10817

23.8%

5

Ghostwriting

6377

7852

23.1%

6

Creative Writing

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

Data Mining

2374

2728

14.9%

12

Shopify Templates

1373

1566

14.1%

13

UX / User Experience

1193

1359

13.9%

14

T-Shirt Design

2020

2301

13.9%

15

Sales

3218

3647

13.3%

16

PDF

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

Home Design

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

Data Processing

11013

12115

10.0%

Fastest Falling Jobs - Q2 2023 vs. Q3 2023

Rank

Skill

Job Count Q2 '23

Job Count Q3 '23

% Decrease

1

Matlab and Mathematica

1349

1011

-25.1%

2

AngularJS

1722

1318

-23.5%

3

Django

1216

932

-23.4%

4

Algorithm

1438

1114

-22.5%

5

Customer Service

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

Report Writing

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

Machine Learning (ML)

2238

1890

-15.6%

17

Flutter

2161

1830

-15.3%

18

Web Development

1187

1011

-14.8%

19

Java

6303

5373

-14.8%

20

Web Hosting

1943

1662

-14.5%

21

Customer Support

1544

1324

-14.3%

22

Business Plans

1237

1075

-13.1%

23

Research Writing

7218

6310

-12.6%

24

ASP.NET

1033

907

-12.2%

25

Python

10560

9283

-12.09%

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 69 million registered users have posted over 23.1 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 Escrow.com, the leading provider of secure online payments and online transaction management for consumers and businesses on the Internet with over US$5 billion in transactions secured. Freelancer also owns Freightlancer & Loadshift, enterprise freight marketplaces with over 550 million kilometers of freight posted since inception. Freelancer Limited is listed on the Australian Securities Exchange under the ticker ASX:FLN and is quoted on OTCQX Best Market under the ticker FLNCF.

Forward-looking statements

This document contains certain "forward-looking statements". The words "anticipate", "believe", "expect", "project", "forecast", "estimate", “outlook”, “upside”, "likely", "intend", "should", "could", "may", "target", "plan" and other similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Indications of, and guidance on, future earnings and financial position and performance, including Freelancer’s FY23 outlook, are also forward-looking statements, as are statements regarding Freelancer’s plans and strategies and the development of the market. Such forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, many of which are beyond the control of Freelancer, which may cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied in such statements. Freelancer cannot give any assurance or guarantee that the assumptions upon which management based its forward-looking statements will prove to be correct or exhaustive beyond the date of its making, or that Freelancer's business and operations will not be affected by other factors not currently foreseeable by management or beyond its control. Such forward-looking statements only speak as at the date of this announcement and Freelancer assumes no obligation to update such information. The release, publication or distribution of this document in jurisdictions outside Australia may be restricted by law. Any failure to comply with such restrictions may constitute a violation of applicable securities laws.

Contact Details

Freelancer.com

Marko Zitko

+61 404 574 830

mzitko@freelancer.com

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