Freelancer.com (ASX: FLN), the world’s largest freelancing and crowdsourcing marketplace by number of users and jobs posted, today released its quarterly Fast 50 Index for Q2 2024 based on data from 251,000 jobs posted to the platform.

Computer Security (up 27.1% from 868 to 1,103 jobs) emerges as the fastest-growing freelance skill on Freelancer.com, based on job postings across more than 2,000 skill categories from April 1 to June 30, 2024. This trend in cybersecurity skills suggests more small-to-medium businesses are turning to freelancers for cyber security support, further backed by Network Administration (up 9.9%, from 1,229 to 1,351) also placing in the top 25 fastest growing jobs on the platform.

The data also shows no negative impact on generative AI tools on freelance jobs, evident in the growth of Writing, Business Service, and Legal Skills seen in this quarter’s Fast 50 report, all of which were predicted to decrease with the rise in generative AI.

PDF writing (up 26.7%, from 2,533 to 3,210) was the second fastest growing job, followed by third place being Microsoft Word (up 23.9%, from 3,368 to 4,173) projects which are also associated with content writing. Writing job Copy Typing came in at the 16th place, growing 11.6% (from 4,428 to 4,941). Legal jobs, which were expected to have been ‘at threat’ to AI, have also increased (up 12.0% from 1,138 to 1,274), as well as Legal Research (up 10.8% from 917 to 1,016).

In addition to the index, Freelancer.com’s annual AI survey, which surveyed more than 4,100 workers globally, investigated AI impact on income and the initial results are shedding light on earnings. When asked how the introduction of AI tools have impacted earnings, more than half of workers (52.5%) reveal they’re earning either the same or more. One fifth (19.2%) say that they’re earning a lot more since generative AI tools were introduced, while only one sixth (17.7%) admit to earning less.

“AI is creating more jobs than it takes. While many critics continue to speculate which jobs will be made redundant with AI tools, the data shows that freelance jobs which are labeled as the ‘most at risk to AI disruption’ are in fact growing. The preliminary results from our AI survey also dispel the myth that freelancer are earning less since the introduction of generative AI as more three quarters of workers we surveyed are either earning the same or earning more, with a subset taking advantage of AI and earning a lot more .” said Matt Barrie, Chief Executive at Freelancer.com.

Cybersecurity threats are on the rise across all organizations, but are particularly harmful for small-to-medium sized businesses (SMBs) which have little-to-no security expertise and usually minimal protection. As a result, businesses turned to freelancers for help. In 2Q24, Computer Security jobs ranked as the fastest growing skills (up 27%), indicating there has been an uptick in cyber security threats targeting SMBs. Many of the projects posted throughout the quarter require help with network security, security assessments to identify potential vulnerabilities, and creation of cyber security response play books.

General business services are also increasing on the platform as more employers are hiring freelancers to support their small businesses. A clear indication of this is the popularity of Market Research and Telemarketing jobs coming in as the fourth and fifth fastest growing skills in Q2 2024, up by 21.1% (from 1,525 to 1,859) and 19.4% (from 1,177 to 1,405), respectively. Other business related skills grew in Q2 2024, including Sales (up 15.5% from 3.467 to 4,005), Lead Generation (up 12.2% from 1,802 to 2,021) and Business Plans (up 10.9% from 1,197 to 1,328).

A sudden increase in General business services means that many of the new businesses, which are usually started at the beginning of the year, now require further assistance in helping grow and scale their business.

Fastest Falling Skills for Q2 2024

The main category of jobs that fell in Q2 2024 was eCommerce related jobs, which saw a significant increase in Q1 2024. Shopify Templates, ranked as the fastest falling skill and was down by 13% (from 1,476 to 1,284). CSS, which is commonly used in website development, was also down (11.8% from 9.486 to 8,368). Both WooCommerce (from 1.072 to 952) and Shopify (2,545 to 2,269) also fell in the quarter.

The easing of eCommerce jobs in this quarter was mainly due to seasonality. Typically, entrepreneurs will start a business at the beginning of the year, requiring help to set up their websites or eCommerce platforms. From there, the entrepreneur either pivots to hiring freelancers for other business services, such as sales or research which we’ve seen in Q2 2024 fastest growing jobs, or are equipped with enough to run their business without any further help.

Fastest Growing Overall Job

The most popular online freelancing job by total volume is currently Graphic Design with almost double the amount of projects than the other top skills. Graphic Design is followed by PHP (programming), Photoshop, Website Design and HTML (programming). These are typically the best skills for any new freelancer to focus on initially when starting their freelancing journey.

How Electronic Repairs Are Becoming the Fastest Growing Skill Globally

Electronic Repairs has emerged as one of the fastest-growing job categories on the platform over the past year. In Q2 2024, it ranked 19th among the top 25 fastest-growing jobs, with a 10.7% increase (from 14,945 to 16,548 jobs). However, its most impressive growth is evident in the year-over-year comparison, where Electronic Repairs jobs surged by 162%, from 6,315 in Q2 2023 to 16,548 in Q2 2024.

Electronic Repairs are in-person jobs where freelancers are deployed across select countries and cities to fix laptops, printers and computer hardware as part of the Freelancer Global Fleet Program.

##

Freelancer.com Fast 50

The Freelancer.com Fast 50 index is the world’s largest forward indicator of trends in online jobs related to industries, technologies, products, and companies. The data is based on 251,000 jobs posted to the Freelancer.com platform between 1st April to 30th June 2024.

Data: Fast 50 Quarterly Index – Q2 2024

2023 Q2 v 2024 Q2

Rank

Skill

Q2 2023

Q2 2024

Growth

1

Electronics repair

6315

16548

162%

2

User Interface / IA

2808

4982

77.4%

3

Legal Research

623

1016

63.1%

4

SPSS Statistics

583

917

57.3%

5

Legal

817

1274

55.9%

Fastest Growing Jobs for Q2 2024

Rank

Skill

Q1 2024

Q2 2024

Growth

1

Computer Security

868

1103

27.1%

2

PDF

2533

3210

26.7%

3

Microsoft Word

3368

4173

23.9%

4

Market Research

1535

1859

21.1%

5

Telemarketing

1177

1405

19.4%

6

Civil Engineering

1032

1204

16.7%

7

Sales

3467

4005

15.5%

8

Local Job

1129

1302

15.3%

9

Business Analysis

2795

3197

14.4%

10

Statistical Analysis

1573

1774

12.8%

11

Figma

898

1009

12.4%

12

Laravel (PHP)

2317

2603

12.3%

13

Lead Generation

1802

2021

12.2%

14

Legal

1138

1274

12.0%

15

Twitter

2277

2549

12.0%

16

Copy Typing

4428

4941

11.6%

17

Business Plans

1197

1328

10.9%

18

Legal Research

917

1016

10.8%

19

Electronics repair

14945

16548

10.7%

20

Project Management

1048

1157

10.4%

21

User Interface Design

4515

4982

10.3%

22

Customer Support

926

1021

10.3%

23

Statistics

1995

2199

10.2%

24

Network Administration

1229

1351

9.9%

25

Virtual Assistant

3024

3302

9.2%

Fastest Falling Jobs for Q2 2024

Rank

Skill

Q1 2024

Q2 2024

Growth

1

Shopify Templates

1476

1284

-13.0%

2

CSS

9486

8368

-11.8%

3

WooCommerce

1072

952

-11.2%

4

Shopify

2545

2269

-10.8%

5

Audio Production

1659

1501

-9.5%

6

Solidworks

1638

1487

-9.2%

7

Illustration

9483

8633

-9.0%

8

Adobe InDesign

1381

1262

-8.6%

9

AngularJS

1246

1141

-8.4%

10

JavaScript

13229

12133

-8.3%

11

Creative Writing

3444

3166

-8.1%

12

Product Descriptions

1253

1154

-7.9%

13

SQL

1372

1265

-7.8%

14

Electronics

2066

1908

-7.7%

15

Poster Design

1135

1058

-6.8%

16

WordPress

13576

12666

-6.7%

17

Web Scraping

3740

3496

-6.5%

18

Blog

1288

1204

-6.5%

19

.NET

1692

1586

-6.3%

20

Corporate Identity Design

4631

4370

-5.6%

21

Transcription

1071

1014

-5.3%

22

Illustrator

26616

25271

-5.1%

23

Social Networking

1245

1185

-4.8%

24

Link Building

5742

5483

-4.5%

25

HTML

30041

28860

-3.9%

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 74 million registered users have posted over 23.8 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 and Loadshift. 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.

Freelancer.com

Marko Zitko

+1 650-800-6863

mzitko@freelancer.com

View source version on newsdirect.com: https://newsdirect.com/news/freelance-jobs-grow-despite-ai-finds-new-data-from-freelancer-com-116679759

This press release is distributed by News Direct. Blockchain Registration, Verification & Enhancement provided by NewsRamp™. The source URL for this press release is Freelance jobs grow despite AI, finds new data from Freelancer.com.