UK businesses spent more than £2.5M on online creative and marketing freelancers in 2012, with content writing and graphic design featuring gthe the top 10 skills required by businesses, according to new data.
Online work platform, Elance revealed online hiring and freelancer earnings set new records in 2012.
Elance’s Global Online Employment Report showed that demand surged in 2012, with jobs for expert talent in marketing and web content being in particularly high demand.
In 2012, the number of UK companies making use of new marketing tools increased at an exceptional rate. With an aim to grow customer engagement and rival the big players, businesses large and small turned to online talent that can be hired on an hourly or project basis to implement new marketing and business strategies in 2012.
Compared to 2011, demand for marketing and creative skills grew by 50%, UK companies spent more than £2.5 million through Elance on talent from these categories. Content writing and graphic design are both two of the most required skills by UK companies, with both jobs being in the top ten skills used by UK businesses.
“Our results prove that our focus on connecting businesses with the highest quality talent is paying off. The number of businesses hiring on Elance increased dramatically, driving strong growth in freelancer earnings,” said Kjetil Olsen, European VP at Elance. “We’re well on our way to reaching £640M globally in cumulative freelancer earnings in 2013.”
2012 Highlights
With 30% of payments being marketing and creative related, such as search engine marketing, content writing and graphic design, these categories make up the second largest proportion of all jobs being posted on Elance in the UK.
Globally, Elance continued to expand in 2012 with 345,000 new businesses (+54%) on Elance posting over 80,000 jobs a month. During the year, 779,000 new freelancers (+44%) joined Elance to find work, with annual freelancer earnings surpassing £130M (+40%) for the first time.
Online content and design needs continue to surge
On a global scale, independent professionals continue to profit from businesses publishing more of their content online.
Freelancer earnings reflect the rise in demand for these skilled services: content writing (+151%) and blog writing (+78%) made huge leaps over the past year, as well as web design (+205%) and graphic design (+165%), with the biggest increases for Photoshop (+165%) and Illustrator (+131%) experts. Marketers with online expertise, including digital marketers (+190%) and social media marketers (+132%) saw substantial increases in earnings in 2012.
To see the full report, click here: https://www.elance.com/q/online-employment-report
Source: www.elance.com