Upwork’s ranking of the top 50 in-demand skills for remote freelancers
The top 50 skills on Upwork.com experienced more than 45 percent year-over-year growth, while demand for the top 10 percent skills grew more than 260 percent year-over-year. See the full list below.
The Upwork’s top 50 On-demand Skills Report Methodology
The goal of The Upwork 50 is to highlight the fastest-growing skills that also have a consistent and substantial level of demand. To do this, using data sourced from the Upwork.com database, we first limit the analysis to skills that are the most in-demand by including only skills that have been in the top 500 on Upwork.com in terms of freelancer billings for the past four complete quarters. Within that, we then rank the top 50 fastest-growing skills based on year-over-year growth rates in freelancer billings for 2019 versus 2018.
The Upwork 50 on demand skills:
- .NET Core
- TypeScript
- Landing pages
- eBooks
- Android
- Electronic design
- Presentation
- Sketch
- Research
- Technical recruiter
- Bank reconciliation
- Slack
- Google Tag Manager
- Sourcing
- Amazon Web Services (AWS)
- Video post-editing
- LinkedIn recruiting
- Data visualization
- Interviewing
- Interior design
- System administration
- Kubernetes
- Data scraping
- Technical documentation
- Project scheduling
- Adobe Premiere Pro
- 2D animation
- Firebase
- Customer retention marketing
- Salesforce Lightning
- DevOps
- Selenium
- Accounts receivable management
- Microsoft Windows Azure
- Database design
- AutoCAD
- Usability testing
- C development
- Accounts payable management
- Lead generation
- Product descriptions
- Certified Public Accountant (CPA)
- Circuit design
- eLearning
- Google Docs
- Docker
- GitHub
- Redux for JavaScript
- Business planning
- Data entry
In addition: Top 3 Trends from Upwork data analysis team:
Trend #1: U.S. workers are supercharging global business
- In addition to the many U.S. companies that are hiring U.S. freelancers, 38 percent of the jobs for the Top 50 skills are being hired for by non-U.S. companies
- The top 10 countries hiring U.S. freelancers for the Top 50 skills are 1) United States 2) Canada 3) United Kingdom 4) Australia 5) India 6) Israel 7) Germany 8) Singapore 9) United Arab Emirates and 10) China.
- “Digital platforms not only provide businesses with access to a global pool of proven talent but also provide independent professionals with the opportunity to export their skilled services to companies around the world — including in both developed and developing countries. Too often, discussions about global trade focus only on goods; but the U.S. exports a lot of skilled services as well, and there is high demand for U.S. skilled services professionals, and Upwork helps them connect.”
Trend #2: The average hourly rate is higher than the majority of workers in the overall U.S. economy
- The average hourly rate for the Top 50 skills in Q3 is $43.72, which is:
- Higher than the median hourly rate for freelancers doing skilled services overall ($28)
- More per hour than 88 percent of workers in the overall U.S. economy1
- “Given the highly skilled and in-demand nature of the Top 50, the high rates earned are not surprising. Yet compared to traditional staffing agencies, businesses find online talent solutions to be more cost-effective, easier to use and faster.”
Trend #3: A diverse range of industries in the Fortune 500 leverage independent talent
- Access to skills and talent scarcity is the biggest hiring challenges; and by 2028, it’s projected that 73 percent of all teams will have remote workers, according to a report
- The top 10 industries hiring U.S. freelancers for the Top 50 skills are 1) Consulting 2) Internet Software & Services 3) Internet 4) Consumer Discretionary 5) Health Care 6) Consumer Staples 7) Publishing 8) Education 9) Advertising and 10) Specialized Consumer Services
- “This data shows that a diverse range of industries are leveraging independent professionals to access the skills they need when they need them. More than 30 percent of the Fortune 500 use Upwork today, and we expect that number to increase.”
