Covid disruption leads to spike in freelance jobs

BENGALURU:  With the Covid-19 pandemic  leading to a large scale disruption in the job market last summer and forcing companies to restructure their workforce, freelancing job roles saw an explosion in number and demand during the period, according to a survey released by job portal Indeed on Friday. The company pointed out that freelance job postings on its website had grown by almost 22 per cent in January 2021 compared to January 2019. 

But the sharpest jump was seen at the start of the disruption. Between May-June 2020, freelance job postings jumped almost two-fold compared to the previous year, Indeed found. With demand for digitalisation and re-skilling spiking sharply following the institution of the lockdown and strict social distancing norms, jobs in the creative, tech, sales, and recruitment fields  contributed around 55 per cent of the total freelance job postings recorded on the portal. 

The survey also gave a breakdown of the most popular freelance roles on the platform. As of January 2021, Freelance Writer was the most in-demand job, followed by Freelance Designer, Recruiter, Developer and Digital marketer. Business Development Executive and PhP developer also emerged among the top-10 freelance job titles in the Indian market, according to the survey. The data also highlighted that searches for freelance jobs were highest in the 20-29 year age group, which contributed to 73 per cent of freelance searches in January. 

“Pushing the freelance community to the fore, the pandemic year witnessed an increased hiring and search momentum for freelance jobs on Indeed. We believe that changes in the external job environment and the added flexibility of work-from-home models, has significantly improved the attitude of the employer and job seeker towards freelance jobs,” Sashi Kumar, managing director, Indeed India pointed out. Among the freelancing roles that attracted the highest pay on the platform were PHP Developer, Recruiter, Business Development Executive, Content Writer, and Digital Marketer profiles.