MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA — (Marketwire) — 12/13/12 — Elance, the world-s leading platform for online work, today released its , forecasting the hotspots and key drivers of online work, a category which is expected to more than double in 2013.
“The staffing industry is ripe for disruption and the fundamental drivers of online work-s growth — instant access to high quality talent, speed of hiring and cost savings — align with business needs of all sizes,” said Fabio Rosati, CEO of Elance. “When you pair the category-s fundamentals with recent trends on Elance, it-s clear that online work is primed for explosive growth in 2013.”
Elance-s predictions for online work in 2013 are:
1.
Online work is transforming the services sector as companies are circumventing the traditional agency model to hire world-class talent directly. The transformation started in 2012 with demand for creative talent skyrocketing 58% over the past year. Additionally, legal (176% year-over-year growth) and accounting services (88% year-over-year growth) continued to accelerate in 2012.
2.
Freelancing is the new normal for students as they discover that online jobs are both more lucrative and more rewarding than what-s available on campus. While building their future, many are choosing to continue freelancing after graduation day so they can travel and explore other opportunities while earning a stable living. There has already been a shift on Elance; the revealed the number of millennial freelancers on the site jumped from 26% to 47% in the past year.
3.
Lack of healthcare is a top concern for freelancers and, if affordable healthcare becomes reality, more U.S. workers will turn to freelance work full-time to gain independence from the corporate world. According to the , 40% of respondents held a full-time job and did online work on the side when they first started freelancing, providing a clear path to full time freelancing. ObamaCare is also a boon for companies, as businesses realize the benefits of hiring online professionals to reduce the burden of rising healthcare costs for employees.
4.
The trend of consuming what you need on demand, exemplified by popular services such as Airbnb and Zipcar, has now shifted to employment, as small businesses are able to hire teams online and use them fractionally on an as-needed basis. The availability of top talent online enables smaller companies to compete against larger businesses by hiring on-demand. The rise in fractional employment has another positive: The economy isn-t as bad as it appears. The unemployed and underemployed are going online to earn extra money, and these jobs aren-t reported in the employment figures today.
5.
As small businesses on Elance have discovered, hiring online results in cost savings, faster time-to-hire and access to top talent that is not locally available. Eighty-five percent of small business respondents from the predicted that hiring online provides them with a competitive advantage. While this trend has already been embraced by entrepreneurs and small businesses, online hiring will become a vital business strategy for enterprise companies as they hire virtual teams as an extension of their onsite employees.
To view the infographic outlining more details of these trends, please visit .
Elance, the world-s leading platform for online employment, helps businesses hire and manage in the cloud.
For businesses looking to staff-up a team on an hourly or project basis, Elance offers instant access to talent and the ability to build and manage entire teams online. For independent professionals who want to work online, Elance offers access to qualified clients, a virtual workplace and guaranteed pay for great work.
The company is privately held and headquartered in Mountain View, California and Oslo, Norway. For more information, visit Elance at .
Media Contact:
Emily Borders
Borders + Gratehouse
Phone: (415) 963-4174 ext. 1
Email: emily(at)bordersgratehouse.com
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