As time goes on, more and more people are becoming freelancers. Whether it’s due to the new technologies or to better and better working conditions, people are deciding that being a freelancer is better than working a standard 9-5 job. This has lead to some interesting developments in the freelance industry that were almost inconceivable 10 years ago. So, with all this in mind, let us take a closer look at the freelance industry trends 2019 so that we’ll have a better understanding of where the industry stands.
Freelance insurance
One of the better freelance industry trends is the development of freelance insurance. Ever since freelance jobs existed, their biggest problem was insurance. Being sick didn’t excuse you from your obligations and deadlines, which made being a freelancer quite difficult. Well, luckily, more and more employers are turning towards better conditions. Different employers have different group plans that cover freelancers during their sick days. This makes working as a freelancer much less stressful, as you do not have to worry about getting sick.
As a freelancer, taking a couple of days to get well is much easier now then it was just a couple of years ago.
Furthermore, insurance companies are getting better and better in figuring out which kind of insurance freelancers need. So, if you have any worries about the relative safety of working as a freelancer, you can freely put them aside. Working a freelancer is becoming safer and safer.
Most popular jobs
As a freelancer, there are almost limitless jobs you can have. The jobs on sites like Upwork range from high paying programming projects to design, tutoring, and even simply talking about your daily lives. There are freelancers who can research your relocation for you on sites like bluebellmovingandstorage.com and even plan your relocation entirely. The opportunities for jobs are endless, and our guess is that there will be even more diversity and opportunities as time goes by. But, in 2019, there are certain jobs that are at the forefront when it comes to demand and payment. These are:
- Web Developer – $60 per hour.
- Programmer – $35 per hour.
- Internet Marketer – $50 per hour.
- Translator – $40 per hour.
- Legal Aid/Advice – $70 – $120 per hour.
- Security Specialist – $50 per hour.
- Writer – $50 an hour.
- Video Editor – $35 per hour.
- Voice Actor – $30-$40 per hour.
Now, all of these jobs depend on your skill level and how lucky you are in finding them. But as a general rule of thumb, if you plan on venturing into the freelance market, these are the jobs that are most likely to earn you a nice buck.
Working in restaurants and bars
The idea of a freelancer as being someone who works from home is long gone. True, a lot of introverted people choose to work from home as it better suits their temperament. But for most freelancers, working from home is not an option, even with a fully decked-out home office. So what ended up happening is that more and more freelancers chose to go to restaurants and bars in order to work. Working with fellow freelancers at a bar is one of the freelance industry trends 2019.
The owners of these establishments noticed this and started optimizing their places for freelancers. This has become so prevalent that one of the freelance industry trends 2019 is joining your fellow freelancers in working in bars and restaurants. They have dedicated working areas, conference rooms, and lounge areas so that your freelance work can be as efficient as possible. So, if you are a freelancer that is starting over in NC after living in New Jersey, be sure to find a local freelancer cafe to increase your productivity.
Blockchain
One of the biggest worries with freelancing was the method of payment. After all, over 90% of freelance transactions are over the Internet, which may cause some of you to be worried. Well, you don’t need to be. The biggest contributor to Internet payment safety is Blockchain technology. Blockchain provides safety and transparency which allows for different cryptocurrencies to exist, and for online transactions to be reliable.
Peer-to-peer hiring
One of the more interesting, yet expected, freelance industry trends 2019 is the peer-to-peer hiring. Namely, more and more freelancers are taking up larger projects that they cannot possibly handle all by themselves. Therefore, they opt for being the employee and the employer at the same time. This is a dream for experienced project managers as they can monetize their skills much better than if they were in a company. Plus, by getting experience working with employees, they are becoming better and better at dealing with large projects and successfully outsourcing various tasks.
What to expect
The biggest reason why freelancing is so popular and is growing ever more so are the new technologies. With the faster Internet and better laptops, being a freelancer has become quite popular. Now, in order to figure out what being a freelancer is going to be like in the following years, we need to consider new technologies like AI, Virtual reality and Augmented reality.
We believe that VR will soon be one of the dominant technologies. In the following years, these technologies are bound to make a boom in the freelance industry. We see glimpses of these technologies now, but most experts are expecting that we will truly feel their presence in about five years. Keep in mind that out of 10 most paying jobs of today, 8 didn’t exist 5 years ago. So it can be quite difficult to predict what AI will bring to the table. But the best estimate is that most of the low skill jobs on computers, like data entry and basic translations, will become obsolete. Furthermore, legal advice will become less and less needed as AI will provide faster and easier search engines.
Dealing with VR and AR
Just like AI, VR and AR technologies are quite hard to predict. You need to remember that while we can now enjoy modern games on our PCs and consoles, most of them were unimaginable 25 years ago. So it is hard to predict how developing software for VR and AR will progress. But, as of today, VR and AR software is a mostly untapped market, especially in the gaming world.
