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

–News Direct–

Freelancer.com (ASX: FLN) (OTCQX: FLNCF), the worlds 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 Q323 (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.

AIs 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.

AIs 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 theyve 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 Worlds 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.

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Freelancer Fast 50

The Freelancer Fast 50 report is the worlds 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 worlds 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

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Contact Details

Freelancer.com

Marko Zitko

+61 404 574 830

mzitko@freelancer.com

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COMTEX_441793123/2655/2023-10-12T10:09:58