The ongoing pandemic has become known to be a game changer for the freelancing community in the world. As industries have been hit, one may wonder how it would have affected Freelancing during Covid-19. In a recent report by Payoneer, they showcased how the pandemic was impacting Pakistani Freelancers.
The report covered over 1,000 freelancers from over 100 countries. However, the demand for freelancing services has reduced due to COVID-19. Yet, it is widely believed that freelancers are optimistic that the demand for freelancers will only increase in a life after the pandemic. Scott Galit, CEO of Payoneer added to this by stating: “Payoneer surveyed more than a thousand freelancers and found that 53% believe demand for their services will increase once the pandemic is over. There’s already been rapid growth in new freelancers entering marketplaces. Much like the downturn in 2008 where we saw a freelancer surge that many called the ‘industrial revolution of our time,’ companies will start to rebound and rebuild as the reopening of the economy begins”.
In the report, it was highlighted that in Pakistan, the demand for freelance services in Pakistan 3as affected as 64% of the survey respondents reported a decrease in business yet 15% believed their demand remained the same. Another insight was that the Asian and Australian markets were noted to have been performing relatively better as according to the survey, the drop is more than 50% in both Europe and North America whereas the figure is at 48% for Asia and 43% for Australia.
One key observation was that freelancing managing teams have not drastically impacted their teams as only 9% answered that they will be downsizing their teams. At the same time, it was observed that the rates weren’t affected as around 60% of the freelancers had retained the same rates at around $21/hour. At the same time, managers are either retaining the same rates (24%) or increasing hourly rates (1%) for their team members. What is optimistic for freelancers now is that the pandemic has made the culture of work from home normal now and some employers won’t change this model due to its cost benefit.
