Friday, May 25, 2012

Online Jobs are on the Rise

Online Jobs are on the Rise:



Online employment is skyrocketing across the globe, according to a recent study by Elance, an international platform for online employment. Even the most skeptical would be hard-pressed not to notice the change in the numbers from the first quarter of 2012 to the same time last year.
The Elance Global Online Employment Report for Q1 2012 shows lots of upward pointing graphs. From jobs posted to contractor earnings, the numbers go up and up and up. In fact, both earnings and jobs posted have more than doubled in the past two years.
Elance also tracked the top skills in demand for the following three categories: Creative, Marketing, and IT. Here are the changes from Q1 of 2011:
Creative: +32%
  • Web Design +101%
  • Photoshop +71%
  • Graphic Design +70%
  • Video Production +68%
  • Content Writing +56%
Marketing: +22%
  • SEM +65%
  • Internet Marketing +49%
  • Social Media Marketing +41%
  • Marketing Strategy +41%
  • Lead Generation +39%
IT: +14%
  • Android +35%
  • PHP +33%
  • JavaScript +31%
  • HTML +29%
  • CSS +29%
Some of the trends they found include:

Online Employment Secular Trend

During the recession, companies turned to freelance labor to control costs and manage uncertainty. Now, as the economy rebounds, demand has continued, driven by small business hiring, talent opting to work online and a fundamental shift in enterprise mentality towards utilizing online workers in workforce strategy.

Video, Audio Consumption on the Rise

Forty-two percent of jobs posted in Q1 2012 were in our creative category. In particular, skills such as video production (+68%), editing (+56%), audio editing (+52%) and voiceover (+48%) experienced significant growth.

Large Business Move Hiring Online

Current expectations are that more than half of the US workforce will be independent by 2020. Enterprises already use temp workers, but now we see innovative companies engaging online workers to further reduce cost, gain agility and even improve quality and outcome.
This is all great news for freelancers! And even better news if you live in the following countries:

Top 10 Hiring Countries

  • US
  • Australia
  • UK
  • Canada
  • Netherlands
  • Germany
  • Singapore
  • Israel
  • United Arab Emirates
  • Hong Kong

Top 10 Earnings Countries for Contractors

  • India
  • US
  • Pakistan
  • Ukraine
  • UK
  • Russia
  • Canada
  • Romania
  • China
  • Philippines
But what is making this trend so, shall we say, trendy?

Recessions

Recessions are happening all over the world—so there doesn’t really seem to be any really great place to work. You might live in a depressed part of the world or even a third-world country, but with an Internet connection, you can work for clients anywhere. Here’s a good example: Greece and Spain, who have been hit hard by recent recessions, have had a spike in earnings for freelancers at 122% for Greece and 142% for Spain in the past year. You might not be able to find a job in your neighborhood, but when you expand your neighborhood to clients worldwide, your personal economy can shift in a big way.
There is really no need to struggle with shortage of talent in your local economy when you can easily work with anyone around the world. The talent of course differs between different organizations and individuals, but then again – so does the compensation for the work. —ArticStartup.com

Saving Money

The cost benefits of hiring virtually (which includes lower overhead, as there’s no office to finance, and because employers can pay per project rather than for a full-time employee’s salary) are getting the attention of more companies in an effort to make smarter operating decisions. —USNews.com
Having someone on staff full time costs a business a lot of money. Many employees get vacations and sick time paid for, have some sort of health plan and retirement options (depending on what country you live in), and take up space in an office. Think about how a businesses rent or lease would change if they had 125 employees who worked from home rather than in a big office in the middle of a city!

Finding the Right Worker

Overseas employers are finding valuable American talent for needs like writing and admin support. Need a translator? Those can be found online as well. —BusinessInsider.com
Newspapers and magazines with a meager budget have an easier time covering worldwide topics by hiring freelancers based in other countries rather than paying to have their own staffers travel abroad.
And there might not be any great local talent, depending on the location. If a business in Podunk, North Dakota needs a website designed and there aren’t any businesses or individuals around to help them, do they just not create a website? Of course not! They find someone to work remotely.

Finding the Right Job

In nations that don’t make it easy for people to create their own jobs by launching a traditional startup, it looks like one way to work around the system quickly is by freelancing for overseas clients. —Forbes.com
Your talents might not match any local jobs. Unfortunately, we don’t always get to choose where we work. I moved from New York City to my hometown in Maine to help take care of my sick grandmother in 2007. I had a hard time finding full time work that matched my master’s degree in journalism, so I started freelancing. It was a way for me to be where I needed (and wanted to be) while still working on my career.


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