The research shows that more people have turned to freelancing alongside employee jobs during the pandemic
Here’s how many people started freelancing over the past year. Source: shutterstock.com
New research from PeoplePerHour has found that nearly 1 in 5 freelancers (19%) are now self-employed as a side-hustle alongside an employee position.
At the same time, 37% of these said they started freelancing in the last 12 months, suggesting a spike in the number of side-hustlers during the pandemic. Nearly a quarter of those freelancers surveyed also said they had gone into self-employment to add to their main income.
According to the research, this trend will continue, with 98% of side-hustlers saying they plan to continue freelancing in some form. Of these, 13% said they planned to take their side-gig full-time. Meanwhile, 22% planned to work part-time as a freelancer and 33% said they would continue freelancing alongside a full-time employee position.
People’s motivations for taking up freelancing are overwhelmingly positive, with over half (55%) citing desiring greater flexibility and over two-fifths (44%) saying they wanted to increase their income.
The data highlights that almost a quarter of a million (227,000) people applied to use the platform in 2020, up from 136,000 in 2019.
PaySpace Magazine considers that the freelance work model has already become a ”new normal” after the COVID-19 outbreak. This way, while searching for a job, people are likely to choose those companies that offer a hybrid work schedule to combine it with freelance tasks.
We’ve reported that Germany’s digital bank brings cashless payments for freelancers.
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