It’s been a year since the World Health Organisation (WHO) declared Covid-19 a pandemic. The resulting lockdowns all over the world to curb its spread, impacted the economies of the countries to a large extent. India, too, witnessed a depreciating economy, which further resulted in job losses across different sectors.
As most companies opted for a work-from-home structure, and cutting down on their workforce to manage costs, there was a rising demand for freelance jobs. According to the job search portal, Indeed, the freelance job market saw 22 per cent jump in hiring in January 2021, compared to 2019, as economies slowly started stabilising.
The data shared by Indeed also shows that there has been a two-fold increase in freelance jobs between May and June 2020. Due to the new work-from-home structures, there was an increase in job search activity, which peaked during the initial days of the lockdown in April 2020, especially in the age group of 20-29 years.
The sectors that hired the highest number of freelancers were creative, sales, tech and recruitment, which contributes to about 55 per cent of the overall jobs posted on the portal. Freelance writer is the most in-demand job, as of January 2021. This is followed by freelance designer, recruiter, developer and digital marketer. Business development executives and PhP developers have also emerged in the top 10 freelance jobs in the country.
Sashi Kumar, managing director, Indeed India, told The Indian Express, “Pushing the freelance community to the fore, the pandemic year witnessed increased hiring and search momentum for freelance jobs on Indeed. We believe changes in the external job environment and the added flexibility of work from home, has significantly improved the attitude of the employer and job seeker towards freelance jobs.”
*All images used for representational purposes only.