According to the latest Global Online Employment Report by online work platform Elance, payments made to freelancers by businesses have also gone up by 47% since 2012.
The report found the most in-demand freelancers are those working in IT and programming (35% of all hires), design and multimedia (25%) and writing and translation (23%).
Demand for freelancers in sales and marketing, administrative support, and engineering and manufacturing has surged by 87%, 85% and 173% respectively.
The report shows freelancers are increasingly being used long-term by businesses. Globally, 50% of businesses are hiring freelancers for more than than six months and more than a quarter of businesses have worked with the same freelancer for at leas a year.
Kjetil Olsen, Elance VP of Europe, said the demand for freelancers was echoing the UK’s wider economic recovery.
“There are more employers, hiring more freelancers across a wider range of jobs,” he said. “For some, this is about managing short-term demand for talent and de-risking growth, but it’s also evident that for tens of thousands of UK businesses, retaining freelancers as an integral part of their talent mix is becoming an essential strategy.”
