Freelancer.com reported the number of jobs posted on its online staffing platform in the second quarter increased by 41% year over year to 605,000 amid the Covid-19 pandemic. The increase over the first quarter was 25%.
Mathematics and statistics jobs were among the fastest growing, according to the company’s Fast 50 Report for Q2 2020, listing the 50 fastest-growing and fastest-declining jobs. The report was released last week.
“The freelance online job market continues to flourish in spite of global challenges,” Freelancer.com CEO and Chairman Matt Barrie said. “Towards the very end of Q1 2020 was the start of a deluge of demand and Q2 2020, the number of users that joined our platform, including freelancers and employers looking for freelancers, surged enormously.”
Jobs posting the biggest increase in demand were “mathematics, Matlab, Mathematica, algorithm.” In addition, Freelancer.com reported statistics and statistical analysis jobs were also in the top-10 fastest growing. The company noted the Covid-19 outbreak has increased the volume of data with tracking and tracing of coronavirus cases, hospitalizations, tests conducted and more.
On the other hand, Freelancer.com noted “local jobs” fell by 36% in the second quarter to 1,174 amid the pandemic. These include onsite tasks such as cleaning a home or assembling Ikea furniture.
The fastest-growing jobs on Freelancer.com in Q2 compared to Q1 included:
| Rank | Job | Q1 2020 | Q2 2020 | % Increase |
| 1 | Mathematics Matlab and Mathematica Algorithm | 8,269 | 16,501 | 99.6% |
| 2 | API | 1,139 | 2,176 | 91.0% |
| 3 | XML | 1,226 | 2,328 | 89.9% |
| 4 | Project Management | 1,810 | 3,370 | 86.2% |
| 5 |
Engineering Mechanical Engineering Electrical Engineering Civil Engineering |
12,442 | 22,481 | 80.7% |
| 6 | Adobe Flash | 1,168 | 2,058 | 76.2% |
| 7 | Statistics, Statistical Analysis | 4,241 | 7,397 | 74.4% |
| 8 | Legal, Legal Research | 2,887 | 4,852 | 68.1% |
| 9 | Game Design | 1,549 | 2,602 | 68.0% |
| 10 | Game Development | 2,365 | 3,878 | 64.0% |
| 11 | Metatrader | 1,632 | 2,655 | 62.7% |
| 12 | Computer Security | 1,108 | 1,796 | 62.1% |
| 13 | 2D Animation | 1,573 | 2,497 | 58.7% |
| 14 | YouTube | 1,596 | 2,532 | 58.7% |
| 15 | Objective C, C Programming | 11,832 | 18,599 | 57.2% |
| 16 | Shopify Templates, Shopping Carts, eCommerce, Shopify, WooCommerce | 17,711 | 27,343 | 54.4% |
| 17 | Circuit Design | 1,062 | 1,631 | 53.6% |
| 18 | Electronics | 3,703 | 5,628 | 52.0% |
| 19 | Java, React Native | 16,086 | 24,209 | 50.5% |
| 20 | Photography | 3,081 | 4,550 | 47.7% |
| 21 | Python, Django | 16,454 | 24,073 | 46.3% |
| 22 | iOS Development, Flutter Swift iPad, App Developer Mobile App Development iPhone | 54,536 | 79,635 | 46.0% |
| 23 | Finance Accounting Financial Research | 8,117 | 11,763 | 45.0% |
| 24 | Banner Design | 7,888 | 11,404 | 44.6% |
| 25 | Academic Writing | 3,762 | 5,422 | 44.1% |
The fastest-declining jobs on Freelancer.com in Q2 compared to Q1 included:
| Rank | Job Name | Job Count Q1 2020 | Job Count Q2 2020 | % Decrease |
| 1 | Local Job | 1,824 | 1,174 | -35.6% |
| 2 | Writing | 1,036 | 810 | -21.8% |
| 3 | Excel VBA | 1,125 | 891 | -20.8% |
| 4 | General Office, Typing, Virtual Assistant | 10,990 | 9,202 | -16.4% |
| 5 | Resumes | 1,653 | 1,389 | -16.0% |
| 6 | Email Handling | 2,756 | 2,349 | -14.8% |
| 7 | Bookkeeping | 1,809 | 1,569 | -13.3% |
| 8 | Call Center Customer Service CRM | 5,841 | 5,197 | -11.0% |
| 9 | Internet Research Web Search | 14,910 | 13,652 | -8.4% |
| 10 | Microsoft Office | 3,768 | 3,452 | -8.4% |
| 11 | Communications | 1,087 | 996 | -8.4% |
| 12 | Data Scraping, Data Extraction | 3,101 | 2,875 | -7.3% |
| 13 | Video Upload | 1,314 | 1,259 | -4.2% |
| 14 | Business Cards | 2,969 | 2,883 | -3.0% |
| 15 | JSON | 1,009 | 982 | -2.7% |
| 16 | Leads Telemarketing | 5,845 | 5,725 | -2.1% |
| 17 | Hindi, Russian, English (UK), French, English (US), Transcription, Spanish, German, English Grammar | 42,463 | 41,889 | -1.4% |
| 18 | Data Analytics, Data Mining | 6,039 | 5,967 | -1.2% |
| 19 | Adobe InDesign | 3,201 | 3,167 | -1.1% |
| 20 | Testing / QA | 1,273 | 1,286 | 1.0% |
| 21 | Icon Design | 1,589 | 1,619 | 1.9% |
| 22 | Photo Editing | 7,549 | 7,771 | 2.9% |
| 23 | PSD to HTML | 1,889 | 1,952 | 3.3% |
| 24 | Article Submission | 1,064 | 1,104 | 3.8% |
| 25 | Editing | 7,518 | 7,832 | 4.2% |