freelancermap celebrates Freelancers’ Day

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Freelancers counteract the shortage of skilled workers and are seen as innovationdrivers with regard to new work. And this achievement deserves to be recognized. We are thus celebrating Freelancers’ Day for the fourth time! This year, freelancermap is evaluating studies that relate to freelancing in the Corona pandemic and sharing some tips.

  1. When is Freelancer’s Day?
  2. Importance of freelancers in our economy
  3. Freelancers in the Corona crisis
  4. Business tips

When is Freelancers’ Day?

Freelancer’s day, Der Tag des Freelancers, День Фрилансера, el día del freelancer, o dia do freelancer or however you call it in your language (btw, we’d love to know how you’d call it, so leave a comment down below!): Freelancer’s Day is celebrated annually on May 14th and is intended to draw attention to freelance professionals who boost the economy with their self-employed work. The day was initiated in 2018 by the project platform freelancermap.

Freelancer benefits for IT experts and companies
Freelancer benefits for IT experts and companies

On this special date, the merits of freelancers are to be appreciated. In times of new work and increasing agility in organizations, this employment model is indispensable and a driving force. 

Importance of freelancers in our economy

Freelancers have become indispensable to the majority of companies around the world. Digital transformation, extensive knowledge in a particular field, flexibility, and adaptability are all of enormous importance to companies. They need to therefore quickly adapt to new scenarios to stay competitive locally and in the global market.

Large multinational companies as well as SMBs need to optimize their processes. As a result, companies and employers are complaining about the shortage of developers and IT workers.

Since the demand for IT professionals is very high, employing somebody full-time and on a long-term basis is very costly and might not be profitable. Luckily, this scenario supports the freelance economy. Companies and employers are now hiring experts in the fields of IT and engineering on a project-to-project basis.

💡 By employing freelancers, companies can react quickly and with increased flexibility to their needs and benefit from unbiased and expert know-how.

We THANK all freelancers on behalf of all the companies and clients that they support with their expertise every day.

What drives our freelancers to perform at their very best?

Freelancers in the Corona crisis

The pandemic began over a year ago. The freelance economy, in particular, was put to the test during this time. After some lockdowns and uncertainties regarding the project market situation, it is now time to draw a conclusion.

Shortly after the outbreak of the pandemic, freelancermap started different Corona surveys in order to understand the concerns of the self-employed during this time.

Decreasing existential fears 

At the beginning of the pandemic, it was not possible to predict when the project market would stabilize again. Even today, a return to normalcy cannot be dated. But the self-employed have hope: in March of last year, 57% were still suffering from existential fears. Today, only about a third of freelancers are worried about their livelihoods.

These developments can possibly be traced back to the advancing vaccination campaign – this gives many people hope for a (working) life as it was possible before the crisis. Nevertheless, 55% of freelancers assume that this situation will last at least one more year, until March 2022.

In our article “Coronavirus Study – Facts & Feelings among IT Freelancers” you will find all the data collected about freelancing and freelancers in the pandemic.

Better project market situation

The increasingly positive development of the project market situation can be a further indication of the decline in existential fears. Companies are again ready to hand over projects to freelancers. There has been an upward trend of this since summer.

project market freelancer survey 2023 freelancermap
project market situation freelancer study 2023 freelancermap

At the beginning of the pandemic, in March 2020, around 6 out of 10 assessed the project market situation as “bad” to “very bad”. At the moment, 48% of the freelancers speak of a “very good” to “good” project market situation, and only 15% percent continue to assess the situation as negative.

This trend is also confirmed by internal statistics from freelancermap:

From August of last year, there was a steady upward trend. Since the end of 2020, the range of projects has been back to normal, with around 3,000 – 4,000 new projects per week.

Planned projects

About a year ago, the world economy was in disarray. Companies suddenly had to step back and reevaluate their financial models. Freelance workers, in particular, who do not benefit from any “protection” from a permanent employment contract, suffered from changes in their job status during the time. The trend of the survey shows that around 60% of the projects that were started or planned are now canceled.

The data collected over time shows an increase in remote work: At the beginning of the pandemic, in the course of the first survey, 21% of those surveyed stated that projects would be continued remotely. The latest survey from March this year shows that companies now offer projects almost twice as often (39%) as remote work.

Business tips

Despite the positive trends, the crisis is not over yet. What options are available to freelancers to compensate for the lost revenues and to help until the “end” of the pandemic?

1# Diversify your income

Freelancers should prepare for temporary occupational changes at any time, regardless of crisis situations – the unforeseen could happen to anyone. Building up more income sources takes a lot of pressure out of self-employment and results in more freedom.

2# Offer your knowledge

Freelancers can offer their professional knowledge in the form of e-books, workshops or courses in order to minimize revenue losses. Flexibility is a quality that almost all successful freelancers have and probably also the best option to survive this crisis professionally. 

It surely has been a challenging year for freelancers (or still is!) but we’re sure it’s all worth it!

Natalia Campana

Natalia is part of the international team at freelancermap. She loves the digital world, social media and meeting different cultures. Before she moved to Germany and joined the freelancermap team she worked in the US, UK and her home country Spain. Now she focuses on helping freelancers and IT professionals to find jobs and clients worldwide at www.freelancermap.com

2 comments

  • Hi, Natalia. Thanks for posting such helpful blog.
    I have read your post very interestingly and got impressed on your effort and career.
    As a young freelancer from Malaysia, I also wish to get helps from you for getting jobs at freelancermap.com.
    Hope to read more of such this golden post on this website.
    With my best regards.
    Julia.

    • Hello Julia, thank you for your positive feedback. We are happy to know that you found our content interesting and useful 🙂

      We are welcoming freelancers from countries like Malaysia so don’t hesitate to register for free and to recommend freelancermap to other friends!

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