Freelancer.com has released figures revealing a notable uptick in demand for human creative skills amid ongoing debates about the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on job prospects.
According to the Fast 50 Q2 2023 report, an analysis of over 280,000 jobs posted on Freelancer.com between April and June 2023, creative writing emerged as the fastest-growing skill. The report also indicated increased investments by businesses in marketing and on-site photography and videography.
The data underscore a significant trend – while AI continues to provide productivity gains, it has yet to eclipse the human touch in creative sectors. Matt Barrie, CEO of Freelancer.com, explained, “AI can’t replace creativity yet. While workers and businesses benefit from productivity gains offered by generative AI, the data suggests that the technology in its current form can’t replace creative work.”
Small business owners seeking freelancers for creative writing saw a surge of 58%, rising from 1,868 to 2,961 jobs. Other rapidly growing sectors included user interface design, Twitter marketing, photography, and Microsoft Word writing, witnessing a growth of 52%, 41%, 40%, and 38%, respectively.
Significantly, data processing and Excel-related projects, areas often considered ‘at risk’ from AI automation, also steadily increased over the last quarter.
Simultaneously, the data indicates a heightened demand for marketing skills in the freelance market, a potential boon for small businesses looking to expand their reach. In addition to a 41% increase in Twitter marketing, there was also a surge in search engine marketing (26%), sales (23%), general marketing (19%), social media marketing (16%), and Facebook marketing (14%).
For budget-conscious small business owners, SEO projects typically pay an average of $2,231 per project, while general marketing jobs average $1,422, and social media marketing comes in at $584 per project.
An interesting observation from the report is the rise of local jobs, with a growth of 37%. This category primarily includes service or physical-based jobs in employers’ local areas, with photography and videography showing significant increases of 40% and 32%, respectively.
However, the report was not without its negative trends, most notably in technology and IT-related skills. Jobs in software development, API, iOS development, and Microsoft SQL Server decreased over the last quarter.
The downward trend aligns with data from Layoff.fyi’s tech layoff tracker showing a reduction in layoffs globally, which could indicate a stabilization of the tech job market.
The data from Freelancer.com’s Fast 50 Q2 2023 report provides key insights for small business owners. It demonstrates that creative skills still hold substantial value despite advancements in AI and tech. Also, the growing emphasis on marketing skills suggests opportunities for small businesses to enhance their visibility and reach. Finally, the falling demand for tech skills points to a possible reshaping of the job market and hints at future trends small businesses may want to monitor closely.
By observing these trends, small business owners can better understand the current market dynamics, helping them to make informed decisions about their hiring needs and business strategies.
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Image: Envato Elements
Large Language Models (LLMs), of which ChatGPT is one, are based on ingesting a ton of content and then using it to predict what word would come next based on the conditions of the prompt given. If you use them over and over they will push the output more and more toward “average”. If you don’t feed new, creative content into their data sets, everything will sound more and more alike. True creativity will always have value.