Did you know that more than half of the U.S. workforce will be part of the gig economy by 2027?
If you’re looking for a better way to work with non-payroll employees, to find the right freelancers, hire them compliantly, manage their workload and pay them accurately on time, you’re looking for Fiverr Enterprise, a total Freelance Management System (FMS).
Meanwhile, if you’re wondering what 2024 has in store for the gig economy, you’re in the right place!
What Are Gig Economy Trends?
Gig economy trends are the best way to understand what’s happening in today’s workforce. They are changes and shifts in the way the gig economy functions that help us to spot patterns and recognize how the way we work is changing in the year ahead.
For example, there was a time that ‘Quiet Quitting’ was a trend to watch, where employees were putting in the minimal amount of effort, which helped us understand that workers wanted to feel more validated and supported by their employees. Many of these workers reduced their hours in the workplace and turned to the gig economy to feel valued and compensated for their time and effort.
The Current State of the Gig Economy
The gig economy is not defined by any one type of role. There are gig workers across the scale of employment, from those who pick up a task or two on DoorDash or UberEats, to highly skilled professionals who augment legal teams, work as freelance accountants, or run successful businesses writing, designing, or in development.
As we enter 2024, almost half of the global workforce, 1.57 B people, are freelancing. So, what are the trends to watch?
Emerging Trends in the Gig Economy
At Fiverr Enterprise, we work with thousands of freelancers and the businesses that hire them, and have identified six key trends to watch in the year ahead.
An Increasingly Connected Workforce
One core challenge of working with freelancers is communication. While some freelancers come into the office, most do not – and the beauty of a freelance workforce is that you can hire the right talent from anywhere in the world. However, that does mean you need to think about cultural differences, time zones, and collaboration. Businesses are increasingly looking for ways to bridge those gaps, offering communication apps and tools that make it easier for a team to feel like one big happy family.
Talent Management
Love that freelancer you worked with last year? But what was their name again…? Talent management solutions help you to organize and manage your freelance talent, so that you never forget a great asset to the workforce, and can track availability, skills, compliance, and contact information at a glance. The best Freelancer Management Solutions offer an internal talent pool, speeding up time to onboarding, and ensuring you never lose a great resource, even across teams or roles.
Gig Worker Upskilling
Freelancers are 1.4x more likely to work on improving their skills and getting training than their employed counterparts. When freelancers can offer more than one specialist skill, this makes their client pool much broader, and helps to increase stickiness for the businesses with which they work. For example, if a writer has graphic design skills – this is a huge perk for the client. This year, you can expect to see more gig workers and freelancers looking to augment their core skill with complementary talents, especially emerging skills such as working with AI.
Virtual Tourism
If you think being a digital nomad was just a fun way to see out the pandemic, you’re years behind the curve. Working remotely is a way of life, and for many freelancers – they would happily never set foot back in an office. Offering ways for freelancers and gig workers to virtually access “the office”, whether that’s web conferencing, digital platforms and portals, and providing flexibility wherever they are in the world is no longer negotiable.
Automated Candidate Assessment
With the freelancer talent pool growing all the time, how will you find the right people to fill your skills gaps? Your own network is a great place to start, but it’s important to look outside of that, and open yourself up to freelancer marketplaces and other circles too. There are thousands of relevant candidates available, so we’re seeing automated candidate assessment tools becoming more popular. Of course, vetting, screening, and meeting the right people needs the human touch. At Fiverr Enterprise, we offer a unique sourcing service, where you upload a simple job posting, and we’ll provide you with 2-6 viable and vetted candidates within 48 hours.
Retirement Planning
Turns out, U.S. gig workers are underprepared when it comes to saving for retirement. The government is stepping in to help with laws like Secure 2.0 offering savings match initiatives, but this won’t start until 2027. Freelancers are starting to take their savings more seriously, and you can expect to see rates adjust to meet that need. A rule of thumb for the self-employed is to save half the number of their age into a retirement fund, so freelancers in their 30s will be saving upwards of 15% each month. For businesses to sidestep the pinch of freelancer rates on the rise, they need to focus on working directly with freelancers, and avoiding steep agency or MSP fees.
Stay Two Steps Ahead of Gig Economy Trends with a Freelance Management System
Fiverr Enterprise is a SaaS solution that gives you full visibility and control over your entire freelance workforce by allowing you to source, hire, onboard, manage and pay, all while ensuring compliance, so your teams can work faster and maximize business growth.
When it comes to staying ahead of gig economy trends, a Freelancer Management Solution is the smartest addition to your technology stack. It supports more efficient sourcing and onboarding of freelance talent, includes a talent pool of available and compliant talent – alongside their skills, and ensures you create long-term direct relationships with freelancers that go the distance.
See how a Freelance Management System (FMS) works with a 30-minute demo from one of our workforce experts.
Related content: Read our guide to gig economy examples.
Related content: Read our guide to gig economy future.