Freelancing in 2022:
Trends, Skills &
Opportunities
REPORT
MARCH 2023
Freelancing in 2022: Trends, Skills & Opportunities
Executive Summary
The freelance economy has continued to grow and evolve, driven by key
advancements in technology, macroeconomic factors, and the rapid rise and fall of
trends.
In 2022, the freelancing industry saw a significant surge in the number of jobs
and projects for technology related skills, especially those for highly skilled,
niche categories such as programming, coding, web development and software
development. The trend was first observed in the middle of the year, as mass tech
layoffs were driving a growth in software development.
The macroeconomic environment, tech winter and nosebleed inflation had led to an
almost daily string of announcements of layoffs. The most similar event was the
Global Financial Crisis where we saw similar trends: businesses looking to cut costs
and going online to hire freelancers and people looking for work online. This continued
throughout 2022, with jobs in website development and programming growing in Q3
and Q4 of 2022.
2022 also witnessed the rise and fall in jobs relating to crypto currencies and non-
fungible tokens (NFTs). At the beginning of the year, jobs for NFTs were the highest
growing job category on the Freelancer.com platform. However, this all came
crumbling down.
In Q2 2022, the world entered crypto winter, a popular term used to describe an
extended period of losses and declines of cryptocurrency. There are a series of
economic factors which impacted the industry as a whole, beginning with the collapse
of TerraUSD (UST) and its base currency, Luna.
This ripple effect has sent shockwaves through the crypto market. Bitcoin experienced
a major crash, dropping below US$20,000 for the first time since 2020. Ethereum also
suffered similar losses, crashing from a high of US $4,878 reached in November 2021
to US$1,661 in June. A majority of other cryptocurrencies followed suit.
In 2023, the surge in tech and IT jobs on Freelancer.com is expected to continue as
more companies layoff staff. Introduction of new generative AI tools is also expected
to cause an increase in jobs in AI and machine learning jobs.
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Freelancing in 2022: Trends, Skills & Opportunities
Contents
• 2022 Job Trends
• 2023 Job Predictions
• Key Stats
• Country Stats
• New Skills Added
• High Payings Jobs for 2022
• Annual Freelancer & Employer Survey Results
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Freelancing in 2022: Trends, Skills & Opportunities
2022 Job Trends
Tech Jobs Skyrocket
The biggest trend of 2022 was the surge in tech and IT related jobs as a direct
result of mass tech layoffs.
Overvaluations and dropping stock prices caused mass hiring freezes and
layoffs across the tech companies globally in 2022. According to online
tracker Layoffs.fyi, there were 159,846 layoffs in 2022. These layoffs, which
accelerated in May 2022, contributed to increases in tech-related jobs across
the platform.
While Android App Development dominated in 2022 and was ranked as the
fastest growing job on Freelancer.com, employers have been turning to the
platform to support niche, highly specialized tech projects.
For exmaple, AJAX, which is used to develop websites, and API, which allow
software programs to communicate with each other, were the second and
third fastest growing jobs, respectively. Niche skills in AngularJS, a toolset for
building apps, and Codeigniter, a toolset for web development, equally rose
by 22% in Q3. Similar growth was experienced by Website development and
Programming skills in Q4 2022.
Freelancer.com’s Fast 50 Index for Q3
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Freelancing in 2022: Trends, Skills & Opportunities
2022 Job Trends
Impact of the rising cost of living in Europe
Countries across Europe endured a cost of living criss in 2022, experiencing
soaring inflation, the cost of housing rising across major cities, and the cost
of basic necessities like food and energy increasing. This saw more and
more people across Europe begin to turn to freelancing as a way to earn an
additional income and make ends meet.
Simultaneously, both workers and businesses began seeking ways to reduce
costs and increase their output amid the economic climate. This meant there
was also an influx of new employers joining the platform to seek freelance
support.
One of the countries which experienced the biggest increases of both
employers and freelancers was Germany, where the number of new users
tripled over several months - increasing by 256% from 3,164 new users in June
to 8,117 new users per month in September.
In fact, the rush of new users in Europe surpassed the COVID new user peak
seen in 2020 as the world went into lockdown and implemented rules for
social distancing.
9000 DE
8000
7000
6000
5000
4000
3000
Dec 05 Feb 03 Apr 04 Jun 03 Aug 02 Oct 01 Nov 30 Jan 29 Mar 30 May 29 Jul 28 Sep 10
New German users per month on Freelancer.com
New monthly users from Germany on Freelancer.com
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Freelancing in 2022: Trends, Skills & Opportunities
2022 Job Trends
Impact of the rising cost of living in Europe
The number of new users in the United Kingdom increased by more than half
(57%) in the middle of 2022 - increasing from 7,289 new users per month in
June to 11,513 new users in September.
A similar trend occurred in the Netherlands, with the number of new users
more than doubling in the last five months - increasing from 1,631 new users
in April to more than 5,495 new users per month in September.
One of the sharpest rises came from Spain, where the number of new users
near tripled in one month - from 3,675 new users in August to 6,442 in
September 2022.
New monthly users from Spain on Freelancer.com
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Freelancing in 2022: Trends, Skills & Opportunities
2022 Job Trends
Traditional marketing revival while SEM crashes
Job trends data revealed shifting trends in marketing and advertising. Projects
for Search Engine Marketing (SEM) fell by almost a third (30.4%) - from 2,300
jobs to 1,600 over a quarter as paid advertising is also the first expense most
buisnesses cut in a downturn.
On the other hand, digital marketing, traditional marketing and YouTube jobs
spiked in interest. Most commonly, employers looked 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%, from 1,058
to 1,642 projects. Digital Marketing also saw a 23.1% increase, jumping from
1,738 to 2,141 jobs.
These jobs range from hiring business consultants supporting social media
strategies to SEO managers.
Notably, the platform 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. Flyer Design projects increased
by more than a quarter (27.5%) from 1,658 to 2,114 jobs, while a similar
increase was also seen for projects relating to Covers and Packaging, which
increased by 27.3% from 1,253 to 1,596 jobs.
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Freelancing in 2022: Trends, Skills & Opportunities
2022 Job Trends
The NFT Rollercoaster
While NFTs started to gain attention at the beginning of 2021, popularity
and demand for NFTs exploded in the second half of 2021. According to
data published by NFT marketplace OpenSea, sales for NFTs on its platform
boomed with over US $3b in transactions in August alone.
Popular NFT collections, such as Bored Ape Yacht Club and CryptoPunks,
propelled the hype and continued to make headlines for record breaking
sales and mainstream celebrity involvement. The combination of demand,
hype and opportunity in late-2021 continued to drive jobs on Freelancer well
into Q1 2022.
Jobs for NFTs were the leading growth category at the beginning of the
year, seeing a 37% increase from 2,045 to 2,814 jobs in total.
Not only did NFT jobs spike but jobs associated with the creation of NFTs
also increased: Caricature & Cartoon jobs grew by 19% (from 2,678 to 3,205
jobs), Illustration jobs increased by 10% (from 9,312 to 10,330 jobs) and 3D
Design jobs increased by 6% (from 6,929 to 7,347 jobs).
However, this came crashing down in Q2 2022 when NFTs and crypto-
related jobs saw the biggest overall percentage declines on the platform.
Jobs for NFTs 2801
decreased by 49%
(from 2,801 to 1,431 1431
jobs), and halved 781
again in Q3 2022.
Q3 2022
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Jobs for NFTs
Freelancing in 2022: Trends, Skills & Opportunities
2022 Job Trends
The Crash of Crypto
A similar fate was met by cryptocurrencies. A majority of other
cryptocurrencies plunged in the middle of 2022, resulting in the global
market capitalization crashing to US$969 billion from a high of US$2.9
trillion back in November 2021.
Larger economic factors also had an impact, such as global equity markets
down by more than 20%, US inflation reaching a 40-year high of 8.6% in
May, and central banks all around the world increasing interest rates to curb
inflation. Major cryptocurrency exchanges began laying off employees.
In June, popular crypto exchange Crypto.com layed off 260 employees,
while Coinbase layed off 18% of its staff. As a result of the crypto market
turmoil, freelance jobs relating to crypto were heavily impacted.
Over one year, jobs for Bitcoin dropped by 80% from 2,610 in Q2 2021 to
only 542 in Q2 2022. Ethereum experienced a similar drop in interest, from
2,820 jobs in Q2 2021 to 1,176 jobs in Q2 2022.
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Freelancing in 2022: Trends, Skills & Opportunities
Top 2023 Predictions
2023 will be a defining year for the freelancing
economy, for both freelancers and employers.
Tech jobs will continue to increase following more layoffs
In 2022, the platform observed a ripple effect caused by mass tech layoffs
globally. As layoffs were announced, it would only take a matter of weeks for
highly skilled freelancers to join the platform.
After a few months, employers would then join the platform to hire for highly
specialized, niche tech jobs. In turn, this grew the number of tech and IT jobs
on the platform, with some growing as much as 60 and 80 per cent quarter-
on-quarter.
The first wave of the trend began in Q2 2022 when the initial mass layoffs
were announced and continued well throughout 2022. This trend is expected
to only continue as more tech companies look to reduce headcounts and
layoff employees in 2023.
Increase in the number of startups
The Global Financial Crisis and COVID-19 pandemic saw not only businesses
looking to cut costs and hire online freelancers, but also people starting
business to get through downturns. Whether it was side hustles or startups,
downturns historically lead to a startup boom.
The same is predicted to happen in 2023, as looming a recession, continued
inflation and increased interest rates affect billions of people around the
world.
The first instance where this trend will be observed will be an increase in
logo design and website design jobs, as this is usually the first step many
entrepreneurs take to building a business.
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Freelancing in 2022: Trends, Skills & Opportunities
Top 2023 Predictions
Generative AI jobs will grow exponentially
Generative AI tools, such as ChatGPT, Dall-E and Midjourney, are
expected to affect all forms of human creativity moving forward. Since
the introduction of powerful and freely available generative AI tools,
anyone with access to the internet can compete with the world’s most
highly skilled designers and copywriters.
One line of text and you can now illustrate highly detailed images. One
line of text and you can now become a copywriter. These tools are turbo
charging freelancers and their outputs.
In 2023, we can expect to see not only freelancers using these tools
to support their work, but employers turning to freelancers to help
build, integrate or enhance these tools. There has already been a 268%
increase in the number of these types of jobs in January 2023.
Image from a Freelancer.com AI art design contest
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Freelancing in 2022: Trends, Skills & Opportunities
Key Stats
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Freelancing in 2022: Trends, Skills & Opportunities
Country Stats
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Freelancing in 2022: Trends, Skills & Opportunities
Country Stats
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Freelancing in 2022: Trends, Skills & Opportunities
New Skills
There were a total of 144 new skills and
job categories added to the Freelancer.com
platform in 2022, ranging from generative AI
to local jobs to eSports. The most notable
additions of the year include:
ChatGPT / GPT-3 / Open AI
All three skills were added towards the end of 2022 following the launch of
ChatGPT, an AI-powered chatbot developed by OpenAI, based on the GPT
(Generative Pretrained Transformer) language model. In 2022 alone, there
were more than 200 jobs on Freelancer related to these job categories.
Stable Diffusion /
Midjourney / Dall-E
AI image generation also
gained popularity with the
introduction of many different
platforms which allow users to
create images through text.
Image from a Freelancer.com AI art design contest
Twitter Spaces
While the audio conversation feature Twitter Spaces was introduced at the
end of 2020, Elon Musk’s acquisition of Twitter in 2022 saw an uptick in the
number of Twitter Spaces on the platform. In turn, this saw employers head
to the platform to source freelance support in moderating and researching
topic ideas for different Twitter Spaces sessions.
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Freelancing in 2022: Trends, Skills & Opportunities
High Paying Projects
High-end Freelance Jobs paying over $100k USD / year
When looking at high-end freelance jobs, there’s an opportunity for
freelancers to earn up to hundreds of thousands of dollars per year.
The top categories include:
JOB EARN PER MONTH EARN PER YEAR
Design - UX Design, Website $6,315 - $21,964 $75,789 - $263,571
Design, Photoshop, Illustrator
Game Development - Game $4,707 - $21,541 $56,493 - $258,501
Design, Unity 3D
Coding - Java, HTML, CSS, PHP, $8,437 - $18,259 $101,250 - $219,108
Backend Development
Mobile App Development - iOS $4,707 - $12,100 $56,493 - $145,200
& Android App Development
Website Development - $5,298 - $11,826 $63,586 - $141,923
WordPress, PHP, MySQL, HTML
Data taken from high-value projects completed on Freelancer.com in 2022
According to our project data, the highest paying jobs per year on the
platform are job relating to Design, particularly for UX Design projects.
One high value design job paid a freelancer $41,000 for 2 months of work
to help design an eCommerce SaaS platform.
The second highest paying job type is Game Development, including
skills in game design and Unity 3D. One freelancer earned over $85,000
in 9 months over two game development projects on the platform. The
most popular type of game design job is Android Game Development.
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Freelancing in 2022: Trends, Skills & Opportunities
High Paying Projects
Coding comes in third, paying anywhere between $8,437 - $18,259 at the
high-end of the platform. One coding job in 2022 paid a freelancer more
than $20,000 per month for an experienced Tailwind CSS developer to
support a cloud-based holiday home rental company.
Mobile App Development, which requires skills in both iPhone and Android
app development, pays anywhere from $4,707 to $12,100 per month when
looking at the high paying jobs on the platform.
Finally, Website Development, which is also the most popular job on the
Freelancer.com platform, ranks as the fifth highest paying job. Freelancers
are able to earn anywhere between $5,298 to $11,826 for Website
Development jobs which require skills in mainly WordPress and PHP.
High Paying Side Hustles - Per Hour
Business Consulting $74
Online Coaching $68
Programming $58
Data taken from projects completed on Freelancer.com in 2022
One of the highest paying jobs per hour on the platform is Business
Consulting. This skill is seeked out by all types of employers - from small
businesses looking for business plan consulting all the way to multinational
companies looking to hire consultants on an hourly basis. One national
service provider paid a freelancer $36,250 for a five month business
consulting project. Similar jobs are available for Online Coaches.
Programming, we reported as the fastest growing skills on the platform in
Q4, can pay freelancers an average of $58/hour.
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Freelancing in 2022: Trends, Skills & Opportunities
High Paying Projects
Trending games, technologies and skills tend to also receive attention on
Freelancer.com as employers look to capitalize on the hype. In 2022, we
saw many new trending technologies or topics featured in the list for some
of the highest paying jobs per project. The list includes:
High Paying Trending Jobs on
Freelancer.com
Drone Photography $5,325
SurveyMonkey $4,569
Data Engineer $3,715
Virtual Reality $3,267
Roblox $3,142
Cryptocurrency $2,560
Augmented Reality $2,427
Android App Development $2,428
Artificial Intelligence $1,868
Minecraft $1,821
Game Design $1,760
Web Design $1,645
Average USD project value for skills with over 50 completed projects in 2022
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Freelancing in 2022: Trends, Skills & Opportunities
High Paying Projects
For games such as Roblox and Minecraft, many employers turn to the
platform to help them build things in or for the game. For example, in 2022
employers hired freelancers to building an entire adventure, fantasy game
based on a children’s book in Roblox. Other employers were looking for
freelancers to create a paintball game, Roblox avatars and a skateboard tool
that would let players skate around the game.
As for Minecraft, employers look to freelancers to help them with tasks such
as building plugins, helping setup Minecraft multiplayer servers, and helping
them complete the builds within servers.
The year also had quite a number of projects relating to the metaverse, seeing
jobs for Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, and game design offering some of
the highest paying jobs on the platform.
Roblox (credit: parents.com)
Roblox (credit: parents.com)
Roblox (credit: parents.com)
Minecraft (credit:familyzone.com)
Minecraft (credit:familyzone.com)
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Minecraft (credit:familyzone.com)
Freelancing in 2022: Trends, Skills & Opportunities
Annual Survey Results
Why freelance? Almost half a million freelancers reveal their reason
The main reason why freelancers decide to freelance is to earn money. One in ten
freelancers join theAlmost
Why freelance? platform to either
half gain experience or freelance while studying.
a million
freelancers reveal their reason.
154,538 To earn extra money
To gain experience in my
54,864 desired field
Freedom to study while
54,311 earning an income
To start my own
47,847 business part-time
To start my own
39,589 business full-time
31.0% Wanted to make freelancing my
38,493 sole or major source of income
11.0%
10.9% Freedom to travel while
9.6%
32,816 earning an income
8.0% To increase my number
7.7% 25,324 of clients
6.6%
I need to work from home to
5.1% 17,667 look after my children
3.5%
To moonlight on top
3.0% 14,897 of another job
2.2%
0.8%
10,959 Couldn't find a job elsewhere
0.5%
4,093 To cut business costs Question: Why did you join
Freelancer.com?
Answers: 497,847
2,449 Other
Users: Freelancers
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Freelancing in 2022: Trends, Skills & Opportunities
Annual Survey Results
Where are freelancers really working from?
An overwhelming majority of freelancers continue to work from home.
Despite the common misconception, working from the cafe and co-working
spaces only makes up a very small percentage of where freelancers work from.
Where are freelancers really working from?
130,924 Home
24,343 Office
9,419 School or College
4,858 Co-working Space
2,589 Outdoors
74.6% 1.5%
1,993 Other Question: Where do you
13.9% 1.1% usually work from?
5.4% 0.8% Answers: 175,575
2.8%
1,449 Cafe
Users: Freelancers
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Freelancing in 2022: Trends, Skills & Opportunities
Annual Survey Results
How educated are freelancers?
When surveying more than 298,400 users on the platform, we found almost
half currently hold a bachelor’s degree.
How educated are freelancers?
136,342 Bachelor's Degree
67,207 High School
42,998 Master's Degree
41,037 Diploma Certificate
Question: What is the highest
7,932 Other degree or level of education
45.6% 13.7% you have completed?
22.5% 2.6% Answers: 298,412
2,896 Doctorate Degree (PhD)
14.4% 0.9% Users: Freelancers, Employers
Who’s freelancing?
As expected, freelancing professionals made up the highest percentage of
freelancers on the platform, followed by students and those self employed.
Interestingly, one in four of freelancers are either full-time or part-time employees.
Who’s freelancing?
70,351 Freelancer Professional
61,252 Student
43,953 Self employed
32,636 Full time Employee Question: What describes
your employment status?
29.8% 18.6% 11.6% Answers: 235,566
27,374 Part time / Casual Employee
26% 13.8% Users: Freelancers
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Freelancing in 2022: Trends, Skills & Opportunities
Annual Survey Results
What’s holding entrepreneurs back from starting a new business?
One in three entrepreneurs aren’t starting a business because they’re either too
comfortable or don’t have enough money. This is the two main reasons revealed
in a survey of more than 71,000 entrepreneurs on Freelancer.com. One in ten
need more motivation to start, while others don’t have a clear idea of what they’re
doing,
What’sdon’t have entrepreneurs
holding enough time or already
back their own business.
from starting a new business?
I'm too comfortable with
24,838 what I'm doing
I don't have
22,979 enough money
7,831 I need more motivation
I don't have a clear idea
5,560 of what I want to do
4,991 I don't have enough time
Question: What is holding
34.6% 7.0% I already run my
4,869 own business
you back from starting a new
32.0% 6.8% business?
10.9% 0.9% Answers: 71,715
7.8%
647 Other
Users: Freelancers, Employers
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Freelancing in 2022: Trends, Skills & Opportunities
Annual Survey Results
What do business owners struggle with?
Almost one in three business owners struggle to create and stick to a long term
business plan. Attracting or acquiring more customers is the second biggest
thing business owners struggle with, following by hiring the right talent.
What do business owners struggle with?
Creating and sticking to my
21,606 long-term business plan
Attracting/acquiring
13,668 more customers
Hiring the right talent
10,597 (for the right price)
Staying focused during
10,012 the work day
7,314 Raising adequate financing
Question: As a business
28.3% 9.6% Managing my team
7,308 effectively
owner, what do you struggle
17.9% 9.6% with most, day-to-day?
13.9% 7.5% “Switching off” at the Answers: 76,240
13.1%
5,735 end of the day
Users: Employers
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Freelancing in 2022: Trends, Skills & Opportunities
Annual Survey Results
What’s holding businesses back?
According to the survey of more than 89,000 employers, finance is the leading
challenge for businesses. One in five businesses also suffer from access
to talent, while more then one in eight are held back by poor marketing and
exposure.
What’s holding businesses back?
27,627 Access to capital / finance
18,285 Access to talent
11,269 Poor marketing / exposure
10,689 Market size
9,706 Don't have enough time
30.9% 10.9%
9,158 Location Question: What is holding
20.5% 10.2% your business back?
12.6% 3.0% Answers: 89,393
12.0%
2,659 Other
Users: Employers
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Freelancing in 2022: Trends, Skills & Opportunities
About Freelancer.com
Freelancer.com is the world’s largest freelancing and crowdsourcing marketplace
by total number of users and projects posted. More than 64 million registered
users have posted over 22.3 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.
For more information, contact:
Press Inquiries
press@freelancer.com
Sebastián Siseles
Vice President, International
+1 415 801 2271
sebastian@freelancer.com
Marko Zitko
Communications Manager
+1 (650) 800-6863
+61 404 574 830
marko@freelancer.com
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