Freelancing is growing during the Pandemic
According to CNBC, further to a study by UpWork, amid the Covid-19 pandemic, there are 59 million Americans performing freelance work in the past 12 months constituting 36% of the US workforce, a 22% increase since 2019. This is generated by a growing number of younger, highly skilled professionals preferring flexible freelance work to traditional employment.
Companies are also found to increasingly rely on freelancers especially in skilled services such as computer programming, marketing, IT, and business consulting, in tandem with the growth in remote work.
The UpWork survey has revealed surprising key findings:
- Freelancing increases earning potential: Of those who quit their full-time job in order to freelance, 75% say they earn the same or more in pay than when they had a traditional employer.
- Professionals are likely to consider freelance work in the future: 58% of non-freelancers who are new to remote work due to the pandemic are now considering freelancing in the future.
- Young adults are turning to freelancing for economic opportunity: Amid a tough job market for recent college graduates, half of the Gen Z workforce (age 18-22) have freelanced in the past year, and of those, more than a third (36%) started since the onset of Covid-19.
- More professionals are freelancing full-time: The share of independent professionals who earn a living freelancing full-time has increased 8 percentage points to 36% since 2019.
- Freelancing is helping to hone skills: 59% of freelancers have participated in skills training in the last six months vs. 36% of non-freelancers.
- Companies of all sizes turn to freelancers: There is a burst in demand for people to support customer services as well as ecommerce development, web and mobile design.
The UpWork survey also found that society’s perception about Freelancing has become more positive.
Meanwhile, 67% of full-time freelancers say that freelancing has prepared them to cope with the uncertainty of the coronavirus pandemic better than those in traditional jobs. Many freelancers who have left their regular employment are now earning the same if not more than previously.
Booming Freelance Economy
According to Payoneer, freelancing is becoming a lifestyle choice for skilled workers globally. Aside from the flexible advantage, new technologies, online marketplaces and secure international payments provide new opportunities for freelancers from all over the world to offer their expertise and find work regardless of where the employer is located.
The 2020 Freelancer Income Survey
Payoneer conducted a global study of 7,000 freelancers from over 150 countries including emerging markets such as Pakistan, Philippines and Ukraine to learn more about their average income, hourly rates and skills.
Younger generations like Gen-Zers and Millennials are a vast majority of today’s global freelance workforce. In Southeast Asia, 82% of workers are under the age of 35, compared to only 47% in North America. On the other hand, Payoneer found that freelancers over the age of 55 aka “boomers”, earn more than double the income of their younger peers.
List of High-paying Freelance Jobs
What are the job categories in which freelancers can earn $80,000 per year or more? Here’s the list of these high-paying freelance jobs, created for CNBC.com by UpWork,
According to UpWork’s survey, 59% of freelancers have participated in skills training in the last six months vs. 36% of non-freelancers.
For each of the high-paying job category, we have added a link to proposed relevant courses offered by John Academy and/or Udemy, to help free lancers hone their job expertise or learn new skills.
About John Academy: This organization is best known for offering accredited online courses for anyone wishing to acquire new skills and gain professional certification to take their career to the next level.About Udemy: Udemy has the world’s largest selection of courses – 130,000 online video courses with new additions published every month and have students from 200 countries. A certificate of completion is issued accordingly but it’s not a formal accreditation. Even so, Udemy certificates are valuable to show to potential employers that you have acquired new skills, which is a highly esteemed trait in every modern organization. Udemy is also trusted by many major corporations.
Courses found on Udemy and John Academy are affordable and sometimes offer special discounts.
1. Financial planning
Sample careers: Financial modeling expert; CPA; financial analyst, estate planning attorney
Median Hourly rate: $75
From John Academy:
Advanced Diploma in Financial Management
From Udemy:
Financial Planning & Analysis: Building a Company’s Budget
Learn the Fundamental Mechanics of Financial Planning and Position Your Career for Success!
2. Network and system administration
Sample career: Network and collaboration architect; Microsoft services architect & IT
Median hourly rate: $65
If you are working in company related to wireless technology, this John Academy course is the best solution for you. The course illustrates the fundamentals and essentials functions of wireless network technology and helps you to embrace the system efficiently.
The course is sectioned into two parts – one is network administration, and another one is about network security. Both the sections help you to achieve a strong command over the technology
Certified Wireless Network Administrator and Security Professional
Udemy offers this specialized course:
Git and Github for Systems/network administrators and Devops Use Git and Github for managing your code as a systems and network administrators and Devops journey
3. Marketing strategy
Sample careers: Digital marketing consultant, copywriter, B2b marketing specialist
Median hourly rate: $60
Udemy offers this popular course:
Business Fundamentals: Marketing Strategy Marketing Strategy fundamentals: The art of selling your products through superb Marketing efforts
4. Ecommerce development
Sample careers: ecommerce developer: online marketing and ecommerce solutions expert;
ecommerce integration and automation consulting
Median hourly rate: $54
Udemy offers this course:
WordPress E-Commerce Development w/ WooCommerce & Storefront
Learn WooCommerce with Storefront and start creating amazing online stores! Let’s build a complete & beautiful store!
5. Email and marketing automation
Sample careers: Marketing expert; front-end developer; senior marketing strategist and consultant
Median hourly rate: $50
John Academy offers this course:
MaiChimp for Commerce Email Marketing Master Class
Udemy offers this course:
Email Marketing: Sales Automation for E-commerce Know exactly what to send & what to say in every campaign. Put your sales on Autopilot using Email Marketing Automation
6. Quantitative analysis
Sample careers: Professor of economics, statistics analyst
Median hourly rate: $50
Udemy offers these courses:
Statistics for Data Science and Business Analysis Statistics you need in the office: Descriptive & Inferential statistics, Hypothesis testing, Regression analysis
Data Analysis Bootcamp™ 21 Real World Case Studies Gain Business Intelligence Skills using Statistics, Data Wrangling, Data Science, Visualizations & Google Data Studio
Quantitative Trading Analysis with R Learn quantitative trading analysis from basic to expert level through a practical course with R statistical software.
7. Web development
Sample careers: Full stack web developer and business systems expert;
front-end web development; web designer, UI/UX designer, front-end developer
Median hourly rate: $50
In developing a website, it is important to choose a subject or theme that will suit your style and preference. In this John Academy course, you will learn to decide on the function and niche of your site. You will learn the importance of visualization and how to make your site content-rich. You will also be able to know how to do back links. Then you will see the significance of SEO, multimedia, and social sites to improve the traffic of your website.
Udemy offers this course, which is the only course you need to learn web development – HTML, CSS, JS, Node, and More!
8. Display advertising
Sample careers: Graphic designer; internet marketer; PPC advertiser
Median hourly salary: $50
Udemy offers this course with the goal to show you How to Create Successful Adwords Display Campaigns with high ROI.
New Google Ads Display Made Easy – 2020 Success Guide
9. Web and mobile design
Sample careers: Web and mobile app development; iOS apps for start-ups and entrepreneurs;
user experience and UI designer
Median hourly rate: $50 Web design is not only about planning and designing. Web design is composed of many different kinds of skills needed to produce and maintain websites. If you are someone who wants to create your website, then this John Academy course will surely benefit you. This course will not only offer you the lessons on basic web design, but it will also provide you lessons on planning, designing, and Photoshop.
Udemy offers this course on how to use Figma to design beautiful mobile & web apps that make users feel amazing
The Complete Figma Course – Designing Mobile & Web App UI/UX
10. Search engine optimization
Sample careers: Digital marketing and SEO consultant; SEO expert
Median hourly salary: $42
John Academy offers this course:
Diploma in SEO and Digital Marketing
With Udemy’s course, you will learn how to Rank 1 on Google with Technical SEO, 1s Pagespeed, UX SEO, Backlink SEO, Keyword Research SEO + WordPress SEO Training
SEO 2020: Complete SEO Training + SEO for WordPress Websites
We hope that you’ll join the growing freelancing network. If you are a freelancer, we hope that the above tips would help you thrive in your field and make sure to join Upwork which has the world’s largest, remote talent platform. We have hired freelancers via Upwork and have been most satisfied.
Check out my post on how to generate extra income stream.
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