Digital skills prominently feature when SMEs need freelance support Recently Published
Recent research has indicated how reliant small firms are on accessing freelancers' skills with more than two thirds saying they would use them to support their businesses.
The study by small business lenders, iwoca, analysed some of the UK's most popular job sites to identify the top freelance hiring trends across the UK.
The research shows just how reliant small business owners could be on freelancers with nearly half of respondents, 47 per cent, saying they had used a freelancer before, and 65 per cent claiming they are likely to use one to help grow their business.
The top three roles that business owners are most likely to outsource are:
- Web Designer - 22 per cent
- Accountant - 20 per cent
- Social Media Manager - 15 per cent
Highest paid
Digital roles were revealed as the highest paid freelance positions with the research showing that the freelance skill costing the most, on an hourly basis, was Search Engine Marketing Specialist (SEM). SEMs specialise in using paid advertising methods to improve search rankings, as opposed to SEO specialists who use organic means. SEM Freelancers advertise an average hourly rate of £58.76, the most expensive skill of those studied on Upwork in the UK. If hired as a full-time employee, the hourly rate for an SEM Specialist would be just £15.17 (based on average annual salaries from Glassdoor), only around 25 per cent of what the equivalent freelancer would make.
The three lowest paid freelance roles, all costing less than £20 per hour, were Sales Representatives, Customer Service Representative and Data Entry Execs at £17.03, £18.28 and £19.01 respectively.
Highest volume
Despite the high hourly rate of Search Engine Marketers, it is not the role with the most freelance job ads. Only 13 SEM roles were advertised on the freelance site Upwork (up to 31 May) compared to the most advertised job, Developer, which had 243 openings, followed closely by Copywriter, with 234 job openings.