Did Pandemic Change Freelancing?

Let’s see how COVID has changed the employment situation and what the future may look like.

America’s future will be freely hired. Or at least that’s what futurecomers believe. They say that one day the U.S. will be a nation of free agents where people will offer their services on their own.

The concept of a full-time employee will become smaller and smaller. And while this is only a prediction, there were significant signs of acceleration after the capture of COVID-19.

Experts thought it would happen in three years, in just three months. For example, temporary job postings increased from 24% to 34% at the onset of the pandemic.

The share of temporary job vacancies for pre-pandemic communications was only 12%. Then it was 4 times bigger. Temporary marketing work has accelerated from 8% to 28%. And even human resource work has been turned into freelance positions.

So, we have to ask the question, how will this affect future work? Let’s see how COVID has changed the employment situation and what the future may look like.

Workers around the world turn to freelancers

It happened quickly – millions of people were laid off, some never returned to their previous positions. By the end of May, more than 40 million Americans were unemployed. Millions more are added to these numbers every week.

There was no time to grieve, so people turned to freelance gigs to survive. And there seemed to be such a trend – workers are becoming freelancers from necessity. As a result, we saw that two million Americans came into the field of freelance translators (36% more).

And so, it was all over the world. Just take a look at the following Payoneer figures, which show the most popular countries with the highest growth in freelance translators:

• Philippines – 208 percent
• In India, 160 percent
• In Japan, 87 percent
• In Australia, 86 percent
• In Hong Kong, 79 percent
• In Mexico, 72 percent
• In Canada, 71 percent
• Pakistan – 69 percent
• In Argentina – 66 percent
• In Spain, 66 percent

America was not on the list, which shows how drastically other nations are moving to freelance work.

Employers turn to freelancers

As more people take on the title of freelance translators, it makes sense for employers to follow suit. Businesses needed a way to go through closures without compromising productivity and revenue. It also had to cut costs to ensure survival.

One survey shows that 45% of recruitment managers expect to freeze the recruitment of new employees. However, 73% wanted to maintain or expand the recruitment of independent professionals. Some even speculate that the transition to telecommuting will have a long-term impact on executive hiring in the future.

This is possible, especially as more people get used to working remotely. Employers work remotely, so the way they are hired will change as they will not be tied to local labor markets. Finding a wider selection will make it easier to find skilled talent.

According to one report, the number of freelance jobs will increase from 2020 onwards. April to June Increased by more than 25%. It is likely that this shift has been driven by more companies revaluing their budgets and opting for a flexible (and mobile) workforce. The second 2020 In the quarter, freelance ads increased 41% (compared to 2019).

Then, according to the UN International Labor Organization, in the second half of 2020. The number of working hours lost in the quarter amounted to 400 million. Those who switched to freelance translators had the opportunity to compensate for the losses.

Here are some of the fastest growing freelance jobs:

• Mathematics and statistics (growth 30%)
• Game developers and developers (up 68% from 64%)
• E-commerce specialists (increased by 54%)
• Marketers (jumped 28% from 8%)