Are you on the lookout for the most recent freelancing statistics? We’ve bought you lined.
Because the gig financial system continues to collect steam, increasingly more employees are ditching the normal company 9-to-5 in favor of self-employment.
However simply what some freelancers are on the market? What sort of industries do they work in? And the way a lot do these unbiased contractors earn, on common?
In this roundup of the highest freelancing statistics, we’ll be answering all these questions and extra. We’ll be wanting on the state of the freelancing trade globally after which drilling down into particular nations and areas all over the world.
Let’s kick issues off by looking at some world freelance statistics. These stats apply to the freelance workforce at giants the world over.
That is in response to estimates by the Worldwide Labour Group.
If that’s greater than you’d count on, understand that whereas in developed nations just like the US, self-employment would possibly solely account for a small fraction of whole employment, it’s a really totally different story in different nations with much less developed economies. In creating nations, it’s not unusual for the overwhelming majority of individuals to be self-employed.
Apparently, this fee of self-employed folks as a share of whole employment has been steadily declining for the previous few many years. Previous to 2010, greater than half of the worldwide workforce was self-employed.
Supply: The World Financial institution1
We struggled to search out a correct rely upon the variety of freelancers all over the world (different statistical roundups that supply estimations look inaccurate).
Nonetheless, on the condition that the full world workforce stands at around 3.38 billion, and around 46.5% of that workforce are self-employed, we will conclude that there are around 1.56 billion freelancers globally.
Supply: The World Financial institution2
That is truly down from $21 per hour in 2014/15, seemingly because of the inflow of latest freelancers from rising economies, the place hourly charges are typically decreased.
Nonetheless, it’s very excessive in comparison with the common wages seen in conventional employment. For instance, the common hourly wage for workers within the US (the place wages are considerably greater than the worldwide common) is simply $11.26.
Supply: Forbes
These are the platforms that join freelancers to employers for short-term work (assume Upwork, Freelancer.com, 99designs, and so on). As this stat reveals, their total share of the broader employment market continues to be very modest.
Supply: OECD iLibrary
There are a whole lot of competitors within the freelance platform market. Upwork is the market chief, however solely by a really small margin, with 9% of the market share. It’s intently adopted by Toptal (8%) and Fiverr (5%).
Supply: Searching for Alpha
Based on an analysis by PayPal, 36% of companies use freelancers for net design tasks, making this probably the most in-demand freelancing talent. An extra 31% use freelancers for programming, which ranked second. Different widespread expertise included graphic design and illustration (30%), net/cellular growth (26%), and advertising and gross sales (24%).
Supply: PayPal
One of many greatest issues freelancers face is coping with purchasers that refuse to pay as soon as the work is full. Based on a PayPal survey, greater than half of all freelancers have skilled non-payment by purchasers up to now.
Supply: PayPal
In March of 2020, when lockdowns have been in full swing the world over, Payoneer’s survey of freelancers in over 100 nations discovered that 32% reported an enormous lower in demand attributable to the financial downturn.
These with North American and European purchasers have been the worst hit and skilled an extra extreme effect than those with purchasers in Asia and Australia.
Supply: Payoneer
It’s not all doom and gloom. Freelancers remained optimistic that the lower in demand attributable to the financial effect of COVID-19 would solely be short-term, and greater than half anticipated to see a growth in demand post-pandemic. And it seems to be like they have been proper! By June, world freelance revenues have been up 28%.
Supply: Payoneer
Subsequent, let’s check out some US freelance statistics. These stats inform us extra concerning the state of the freelance employment sector in America.
The US has one of many largest freelance workforces on the planet. Over 59 million Americans have been freelancing in 2020, up from 53 million in 2013.
Supply: Statista1
So we all know that there are 59 million freelancers within the US. We additionally know that there are 161 million folks within the wider US workforce. This tells us that freelancers make up over a 3rd of the full US workforce, which is a considerably better proportion than different nations with related economies, just like the UK.
Supply: Statista2
Even supposing there are already an enormous variety of freelancers within the US, specialists predict that the freelance financial system will proceed to achieve momentum over the following few years. By 2028, there can be 90.1 million folks freelancing within the US. At this level, they’ll make up greater than half of the full US workforce.
Supply: Statista3
Freelancer earnings within the US have been up 78% year-on-year in 2019. The UK got here subsequent (up 59% YOY), and Brazil third (up 48% YOY).
Supply: Payoneer2
US freelancers noticed a surge in demand even though those in full-time employment confronted difficult instances.
Employers who needed to furlough or let go of full-time employers with the purpose to downsize pivoted to filling the gaps with short-term freelancers as a substitute. Consequently, revenues have been up 43% in June 2020.
Supply: Payoneer
And I don’t blame them! When you’ve had a style of life exterior of the workplace, it’s robust to return.
Supply: Upwork
Many individuals assume that freelancing is just good as a supplementary, part-time revenue supply, and contemplate it as no substitute for full-time employment. Nonetheless, as this stat reveals, this isn’t essentially the case. 36% of individuals freelancing within the US now achieve this full-time – that’s up by 8% since 2019.
Supply: Upwork
This statistic reveals simply how enormous the freelancing financial system actually is. It additionally represents a rise of twenty-two% YOY.
Supply: Upwork
Freelancers are likely to earn greater than folks in conventional employment on an hourly foundation. It’s no shock, then, that three-quarters of US freelancers say they earn extra now than they did once they labored in a salaried place.
Supply: Upwork
One of many greatest attracts of working freelance is that it provides you extra management over your individual working schedule. The pliability this offers is right for folks with dependents who want to slot in work alongside their household commitments.
Supply: Upwork
Listed below are some freelance statistics that inform us extra concerning the UK’s self-employed and freelance workforce.
This works out at around 12% of the full UK workforce. The ‘self-employed’ within the UK embrace these operating their very own enterprise, working in a partnership, or working as a sole dealer. The 4.35 million determined is down by 5% since 2019, in response to analysis by ipse.
Supply: ipse
Ipse makes use of a really slender definition of the period ‘freelancer’. They use the period solely to check with the sub-sector of self-employed those who work within the prime three most expert occupations (based mostly on SOC requirements). As of 2020, there have been 2.2 million freelancers that match this definition, up by 1% from 2019.
Supply: ipse
This speculative estimate may not be fairly as spectacular because of the $1.2 trillion within the US, but it surely’s nonetheless fairly unimaginable. Research has proven that freelancers within the UK play a particularly necessary function within the financial system as they drive innovation and supply better effectivity, which boosts financial output.
Supply: ipse
Freelancing within the UK isn’t a side-hustle – it’s a legitimate profession selection. In contrast to the US, in which solely just a little over a 3rd of freelancers say they work full-time, nearly all freelancers within the UK say it’s their major job.
Supply: ipse
This consists of expert employees in sectors equivalent to development, agriculture, textiles, and meals prep. Of those, development and constructing trades is the most important sector, accounting for 405,000 of the self-employed.
Supply: ipse
Whereas there’s clearly a big gender hole right here, it’s getting smaller. The proportion of girls working freelance in comparison with males has elevated by 2 share factors since final yr.
Supply: ipse
Reminder: within the ipse research, ‘freelancers’ solely refers to self-employed folks working within the prime three highly-skilled professions. The gender hole in these particular professions is far smaller: 56% are male whereas 44% are feminine.
Supply: ipse
Folks in this age group make up 25% of the full self-employed workforce. 40 to 49-year-olds come subsequent, accounting for 23% of all self-employed people. Evidently youthful individuals are much less prone to work independently, as 16 to 29-year-olds makeup solely 11% of the UK’s self-employed inhabitants.
Supply: ipse
The UK freelance trade grew quickly between 2019 and 2020. 15% of all self-employed folks began working for themselves throughout that interval, seemingly on account of widespread furlough and downsizing attributable to the pandemic.
Supply: ipse
Questioning what number of freelancers there are in Europe? Take a look at the European freelancing statistics beneath!
Apparently, this tells us that self-employment isn’t as widespread in Europe as it's within the US. Europe has lower than half the variety of self-employed employees within the US, although it has an inhabitant greater than 2x bigger.
Supply: Malt & BGC
Salaried positions reached their peak in 2000. Since then, unbiased work has been on the rise throughout the continent.
Supply: Malt & BGC
Self-employed folks make up around 30% of the full employment market of Greece, which makes it the nation with the best proportion of self-employed employees. Italy ranked second at 22%.
Supply: Eurostat
The whole labor pressure in Germany stands at around 45 million, which signifies that freelancers solely make up around 2.7% of the nation’s workforce. For comparability, there are around 1 million freelancers in France and 753k in Spain.
Supply: Malt & BGC
In Germany, the common freelancer is 45 years previous. In France, the common age is 37; and in Spain, it’s 40.
Supply: Malt & BGC
Within the UK, there’s a transparent gender divide in Europe’s freelance workforce. Males account for 65% of freelancers throughout the continent (around two-thirds).
Supply: Malt & BGC
Freelancers in Europe are typically extremely educated. 77% maintain a bachelor’s diploma or above, and 54% maintain a grasp’s diploma. That is considerably greater than the final inhabitants, of which lower than 40% are college graduates.
Supply: Malt & BGC
Within the tech and knowledge trade, German freelancers earn €735 per day, on common, in comparison with €492 in France and €230 in Spain. There’s an analogous wage distinction throughout different freelance industries (see the picture above).
Supply: Malt & BGC
Greater than four-fifths of these working freelance in Europe stated they selected to turn out to be unbiased so as ‘to handle my time freely’, in response to the latest survey.
The second hottest motive cited was ‘to make my very own selections for my profession’ (76%). Location independence is one other large draw, with 73% of freelancers saying they turned unbiased ‘to decide on the place I work’.
Supply: Malt & BGC
There’s a typical false impression that working freelance means working fewer hours per week. Nonetheless, as this stat reveals, that’s not essentially the case – a minimum of in Europe. Freelancers on the continent work an analogous variety of hours to folks in salaried positions.
Supply: Malt & BGC
Lastly, let’s check out the state of the freelance financial system in varied Asian and African nations, and throughout the areas as an entire.
Asia’s freelance financial system is rising quick. Based on the latest survey, 84% of hiring managers within the Asia Pacific have outsourced work to freelancers. The identical survey discovered that firms that rent freelancers save 20%+ in labor prices.
Supply: The ASEAN Submit
The US may be the nation that topped the charts, however, Asia’s freelance earnings grew the quickest of all areas . Freelance earnings have been up by 138% throughout 4 Asian nations, together with Pakistan, the Philippines, India, and Bangladesh.
Supply: Payoneer2
In 2020, freelancers within the Philippines skilled 208% YOY income development. India got here second at 160%, and Japan third at 87%.
Supply: Payoneer
That may seem to be quite a bit, but it surely’s solely a tiny fraction of the nation’s whole inhabitants (1.38 billion).
Supply: Payoneer
Increasingly folks in India appear to be seeing the potential advantages of freelancing, as the full variety of new freelancers grew by a whopping 46% in Q1 2020.
Supply: Payoneer
In contrast to within the West, in which self-employment is extra widespread amongst older age teams, nearly all freelancers in India are underneath 30 years previous.
Supply: TOI
That features platforms like Upwork, Freelancer.com, Fiverr, Guru, and Dribbble.
Supply: TOI
This makes up around 5% of the nation’s 66-million sturdy workforce. Freelancing is much less widespread in Japan than in different nations in Asia because of the work tradition. There is a detrimental notion around freelancers – dubbed ‘freezers’ – with most individuals preferring the steadiness of conventional full-time employment in companies. Nonetheless, this can be altered.
Supply: Japan Occasions
Over half of all freelancers in Japan report experiencing ‘some form of drawback’ with firms that rent them.
Supply: Japan Occasions
That is in response to modeled estimates by the ILO. Many elements of China are nonetheless economically creative, and it’s seemingly that the excessive proportion of self-employed employees is because of the lack of full-time employment alternatives in these areas.
Supply: The World Financial institution1
This enormous surge in income was seemingly largely pushed by the truth that native authorities within the nation shut down faculties and different instructional institutes as a part of their COVID containment efforts.
Consequently, demand for online schooling surged – and freelance online instructors took up the mantle. The federal government additionally launched a web-based coaching program particularly to boost the inhabitants’ freelancing expertise.
Supply: Payoneer
Freelancing has grown quickly throughout Africa lately. Round 10% of the full world inhabitants of freelancers reside in nations throughout the African continent, in response to a research carried out by Payoneer and referenced on Africa.com.
Supply: Africa.com
Freelancing statistics sources
That concludes our roundup of the highest freelancing statistics. Hopefully, this has helped shed some mild on the state of the worldwide freelance financial system, and the way freelancing differs from nation to nation.
If, after studying this, you’re keen to affix the rising freelance workforce, we’ve bought loads of weblog posts that may assist. You would possibly wish to begin by trying out our roundup of the most effective freelance job websites .
And should you’d like to take a look at extra fascinating statistics, I’d advocate studying our posts on running blog stats , podcasting stats , or distant work stats .
by
Imtiaz Bhutto
April 03, 2022
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