Expert360 2018 year in review: the biggest changes in the freelance workforce

Sydney, Australia – Expert360, the leading freelance management platform and marketplace in APAC, has today revealed its 2018 year-in-review data with the IT and Telco sector the most in-demand industry vertical.

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Key figures:

• In 2018, the most in-demand professional freelancers worked in the IT & Telco sector
• Next best industries were Consulting & Professional Services, Retail & Fashion, Insurance and Financial Services.
• The platform’s highest ‘Individual’ earned an impressive $330K, with the highest ‘Team’ earner receiving an impressive $1.7M through the platform.
• Across all projects completed in 2018, 37 per cent represented a re-engagement, i.e. a consultant that was re-engaged within that same company for the same or a similar project.

The insights, drawn from completed project data on the Expert360 platform, reflect the scale and manner in which APAC business are now engaging with non-permanent workers.

CEO of Expert360, Bridget Loudon, said APAC companies were becoming increasingly reliant on freelance talent to top up their workforce and augment individual teams.

“It’s not surprising that technology specialists were the most in-demand in 2018. An exponential number of businesses are going through large-scale digital transformation programs and are reliant on top contingent talent to drive this process,” Ms Loudon said.

“There were also several sectors with a burgeoning demand for non-permanent workers, with Retail & Fashion, Financial Services & Insurance being the industries that experienced the largest year-on-year jump in demand.

“This shows that enterprises are building out entire project teams focussed on improving their understanding of their customer journey and we have seen an increase in project-based talent to fill these large scale project teams.”

Within the  IT & Telco vertical, the Expert360 platform saw a significant increase in demand for talent highly experienced in Technology Strategy, IT Project & Program Management and Technical Business Analysis.

At a junior-mid level, Project & Program Management was the freelance skill most wanted by Australian businesses, followed by Change Management, Business Strategy & Transformation, Business/Data Analytics and Data Science/Big Data.

At a mid-senior level, the most in-demand skills were Program Management, IT Project Management, Business Strategy & Transformation, Procurement & Category Management, Customer Strategy and Marketing Strategy.

The growing reliance of large businesses on contingent workers also reflected the growth in the average project length on the platform to between five and six months.

Ms Loudon said the year-in-review data also provided insight into the earnings of the platform’s Experts.

Expert360’s top freelancers commanded an impressive individual annual salary of $270k in 2018, reiterating the growing demand and the skyrocketing value of top-freelance talent.

Average day rates for the platforms freelancers varied from role to role, with Technology Strategists earning an average of $2.2K per day, Business Strategists $1.4K per day, Project/Program/Change Managers  $900 per day, Data/Business Analysis $800 per day and marketing specialists $850 per day.

Looking ahead, Expert360 predicts Strategy Consultants, Agile Coaches, Project & Program Managers, Business Analysts, Creative Services and Compliance and Risk Managers will be the leading in-demand freelance skills in 2019.