Upwork Study Finds 60 Million Americans Freelancing in 2022
December 13 2022 - 9:00AM
Business Wire
Total freelance professionals reaches all-time
high as people reevaluate the old ways of work
Upwork (Nasdaq: UPWK), the world’s work marketplace that
connects businesses with independent talent, today released the
results of “Freelance Forward: 2022,” the most comprehensive study
of the U.S. independent workforce, which found that 60 million
Americans performed freelance work in the past 12 months,
representing 39% of the entire U.S. workforce.
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Upwork Freelance Forward 2022 (Graphic:
Business Wire)
Upwork’s study found American freelancers contributed $1.35
trillion in annual earnings to the U.S. economy, $50 billion more
than in 2021. With the current economic uncertainty, along with the
rise of movements such as “The Great Resignation” and “Quiet
Quitting,” many professionals are undergoing a once-in-a-generation
reassessment of what it means to have a fulfilling career.
“Freelancing continues to gain popularity among skilled
professionals as more people evaluate their priorities and values
around work,” said Margaret Lilani, VP of talent solutions at
Upwork. “The 9-to-5, in-office, single employer model is not what
all people want anymore. Instead, freelancing allows professionals
to build meaningful careers with the work and clients that they
choose, and many are taking advantage of this opportunity.”
Large swaths of the U.S workforce are redefining what work means
beyond traditional career pathways and are seeking out
alternatives. The result: a record number of professionals turned
to freelancing in 2022.
Key findings of the report include:
- Freelancing remains a significant part of the U.S. labor
market and economy: Freelancers contributed $1.35 trillion to
the U.S. economy in annual earnings in 2022, up $50 billion from
2021.
- Freelancing hits an all-time high: The share of
professionals freelancing increased to 60 million Americans, up
three percentage points from 2021 to 39%.1
- Perceptions of freelancing continue to shift: Nearly
three-quarters of freelancers (73%) say that perceptions of
freelancing as a career are becoming more positive, up from 68% in
2021.2
- Gen Z and Millennials are the most likely to explore
freelancing: In 2022, 43% of all Gen Z professionals and 46% of
all Millennial professionals performed freelance work.
- Over half of freelancers provide knowledge services: 51%
of all freelancers, or nearly 31 million professionals, provided
knowledge services such as computer programming, marketing, IT, and
business consulting in 2022.
- Diversified workers become more common: 17% of U.S.
workers are now diversified, meaning they seek multiple sources of
income from a mix of traditional employment and freelance work, up
three percentage points from 2021.
- Freelancing continues to grow among the most educated:
26% of all U.S. freelancers hold a postgraduate degree, up from 20%
in 2021.
To read the full report, visit
www.upwork.com/research/freelance-forward-2022.
About Freelance Forward
To see further insights, please visit
www.upwork.com/research/freelance-forward-2022. The study is
conducted by independent research firm Edelman Data &
Intelligence. 3,000 U.S. working adults over the age of 18 were
surveyed for it online between September 21, 2022 – October 7,
2022. Of those, 1,164 were freelancers and 1,836 were
non-freelancers. Results were collected to ensure demographic
representation in line with the United States Bureau of Labor
Statistics’ 2022 Labor Force Statistics from the Current Population
Survey and the American Community Survey. The study has an overall
margin of error of ±1.8% at the 95% level of confidence.
Freelancers: ±2.9%, Non-freelancers: ±2.3%
About Upwork
Upwork is the world’s work marketplace. We serve everyone from
one-person startups to over 30% of the Fortune 100 with a powerful,
trust-driven platform that enables companies and talent to work
together in new ways that unlock their potential. Our talent
community earned over $3.3 billion on Upwork in 2021 across more
than 10,000 skills in categories including website & app
development, creative & design, customer support, finance &
accounting, consulting, and operations. Learn more at upwork.com
and join us on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and
TikTok.
1 Based on September non-farm payrolls of 153 million 2 For
freelancers who were freelancing before COVID-19
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Katie Gallagher press@upwork.com
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