© INDOR ESOLUTION 2017

May. 2017
Freelancing in Europe
Market Research
Table of Contents
1. INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................................................
2. OVERVIEW OF FREELANCING MARKET .................................................................................
2.1 Freelancing ...............................................................................................................................
2.2 Advantages of Freelancing........................................................................................................
2.3 Revenue Growth........................................................................................................................
2.4 EU future prospects & Estimates...............................................................................................
2.5 Future of freelancing.................................................................................................................
2.6 Statistics to watch.....................................................................................................................
3. TRENDS OF FREELANCING IN EUROPE..................................................................................
3.1 Europe, a leader in the use of smartphones.............................................................................
3.2 The mobile commerce trend.....................................................................................................
3.3 Encouraging younger generation..............................................................................................
1. INTRODUCTION
This work aimed to evaluate and analyse the growth of freelancing in Europe. Europe is a
dynamic Economy with full of extremely qualified and talented people and favorable work
environment for freelancing. Europe is full of great and talented companies able to use the
freelancers to take any business to a next level in Europe or worldwide.

2. OVERVIEW OF FREELANCING MARKET

Online freelancing has been on the rise for the last decade and it will only continue to grow for
years to come. The numbers from the recent research clearly reflect that the way we work is
changing – traditional job market is transforming into the freelance economy of the connected
era. According to the research commissioned by European Forum of Independent Professionals
(EFIP) the number of freelancers in European Union have increased by 45% from just under 6.2
million in 2004 to 8.9 million in 2013. This makes freelancers the fastest growing group in the EU
labour market.
Online freelancing has been on the rise for the last decade and it will only continue to grow for
years to come. The numbers from the recent research clearly reflect that the way we work is
changing – traditional job market is transforming into the freelance economy of the connected
era.
2.1 Freelancing
A freelancer is self-employed person offering services, usually to businesses and often to multiple
clients at a time. The type of work freelancers do varies. Nearly every type of service a business
would need could be provided by a freelancer, including (but not limited to), marketing, such as
social media marketing, copywriting, and publicity, writing, such as articles and blog posts,
technological support, such as web programming and design, creative works such as graphic
design, and financial support, such as bookkeeping.

2.2 Advantages of Freelancing

There are several perks to working as a freelancer, including:

 Get started quickly
 Easy to start
 Affordable
 High demand for help
 Choice of own schedule & place of work.
 Pick and choose clients
 Freelancing provided fastest job growth opportunity and grown 53% from 2010 to
2016.
 Average completed project value is US$ 167 in FY 2016
 Total 4.2 Mln bids received in a month and more than 78% project get bid within
60s.
 Europe have 615 Million freelance users which is around 74% of internet user in
Europe.
2.4 EU future prospects :-

The future prospect of freelancing in Europe looking good due to following reasons:-
 Technology as the Driving Force
 Mobile devices have untethered workers from their desks; social media now connects people
across borders, and online freelance marketplaces make finding work easier.
 87 percent of Millennials say their smartphone never leaves their side, night or day.
 Nearly half (45 percent) use personal smartphones for work (vs. 18 percent for older
generations).
 80 percent uses social media as a means of finding work.
 Half of the United Kingdom’s working population will be self-employed in the next five years,
estimates say.
 The European Union saw a 45 percent increase in the number of independent workers from
2012 to 2013.
 Independent workers comprise the fastest growing group in the European Union labor
market.
 78% of the UK public think that freelancing and flexible working help promote a good
work/life balance
 72% think freelancing has a positive effect on family life
 In 2013, the number of businesses hiring freelancers online increased 46%
 Payments to freelancers increased 37% year on year
……continue
 The average hourly rate for UK freelancers increased 6.7% in 2013
 IT & Programming (at 41% of all hires); Design & Multimedia (24%) and Writing & Translation
(18%) make up the majority of freelance jobs online.
 Freelancing is now seen as a highly attractive and lucrative career option by 87% of students
with first or second class degrees
 his compares to 77% of those with lower class degrees.
 21% of graduates with first class honours say they have already chosen to work as a
freelancer, suggesting that the freelance economy’ is beginning to take hold among those
graduates with the strongest degree results
 29% of all graduates say freelancing is part of their career strategy for the next five years, a
fact that suggests the freelance economy will continue to gather pace in the UK
 The flexibility offered by freelancing is cited as the biggest career draw, with over two thirds
(69%) of all graduates saying they feel independent work offers them a better work-life
balance.
 The opportunity to work on a variety of different projects and across sectors is also
appealing, with over a third (38%) saying this is a significant pull
 Respondents are also attracted to the earning potential of freelance work with 38% saying
they feel they can earn as much, if not more than they could in a traditional job
 Elance data shows that the average hourly rate for UK freelancers increased 6.7% in 2013
 Spain and Slovakia have both have 13% rates of self-employment
 Italy has a 21% rates of self-employment
 2.5 Future of freelancing
The average number of hours worked by agency workers across Europe this month
grew +11% compared with the same period last year.Italy continues to show the
strongest growth, with an increase of 26.1% for the period, closely followed by Finland
for which we’re resuming data gathering as of this issue. Austria and France perform
well at 14.1% and 11.2% respectively and the Netherlands deliver solid growth in
February at 8%. Switzerland is back on track with a 4.1%growth'
Above figures shows strong growth opportunity for freelancers in EU.
Agency work sales revenues continued to deliver solid year-on-year growth with all
reporting markets recording positive figures for the period. Italy leads the field at
28.8%. Finland and France perform very well with a y-o-y growth of 23.3% and 11%
respectively.
More people are choosing a freelance career. Freelancers Union report also found that
63% of freelancers chose their path more by choice than necessity, an increase of 10
percentage points from 2014. Additionally, 79% of freelancers say freelancing is better
than a typical 9-to-5 job. And 50% say there’s no amount of money that would get
them to take a traditional job and stop freelancing.
Freelance earning potential continues to grow
 AGENCY WORK BUSINESS INDICATOR: MARCH 2017
WORLD EMPLOYMENT CONFEDERATION-EUROPE NATIONAL FEDERATION

Austria
The growth shown by Austria throughout 2016 has continued into 2017. Agency hours worked in February
2017 showed a strong 14.1% increase year-on-year compared with February 2016.
Belgium
In February 2017 the temporary agency work industry grew by 6.14% compared with February 2016. This
figure is the result of a growth of +8.3% in the blue collar segment and a growth of +3.3% in the white collar
segment.
Finland
Finland shows a two-digit growth in terms of agency work sales revenues with no exception since 2016. It
continues to move towards that direction with a y-o-y growth of 23.3% in January 2017. This edition resumes
data gathering for the evolution of the amount of hours worked, that marks a rise of 25% compared to last year,
same period.
France
In January, temporary work turnover increased by 11% which confirms the upward trend of 2016. The
number of hours worked grew by 11.2% (year-over-year). In half of the regions, temporary employment recorded
a double-digit growth. The most dynamic regions are Limousin (+20.8%), Franche-Comté (+16.9%) and
Champagne-Ardenne (14.1%). After+8% in February, the number of temps at work grew by 9,7% in March.
During the first quarter, growth reached 8,6% (in comparison with T1 2016).
Continue....
Germany
Due to a change in the data from the federal employment agency, Germany will not appear
in the AWBI until further notice.
Netherlands
In period 2 (week 5 – 8) the total amount of hours increased 8%. Turnover also grew 8% in
comparison to the same period last year. This period had an equal amount of workable days
compared to the same period last year, so no correction was applied. The administrative sector
increased 3% in hours and turnover grew 3% in comparison to the same period in 2016. Hours in
the industrial sector increased 11% and turnover increased 13% compared to the same period
last year. Furthermore, the amount of worked hours in the technical sector increased 8% and
turnover grew 10%.
Norway
In Q4 2016 the Norwegian agency work market grew for the first time for more than three
years. Having stabilized in Q2 and Q3, this growth in Q4 indicates that the bottom has been
reached and it is hoped the sector will see a positive trend in 2017. In particular the construction
and manufacturing areas lifted the market.
Switzerland
Temporary agency work showed a negative trend at the start 2017 with activity down 5.1% in
January compared with January the previous year. In February though, we notice an increase of
4.1% of activity compared to the same period last year. Analysis of the past 12 months reveals a
less pronounced fall.According to Swisstemptrend, commercial activity fell by 0.2% over the
period.
2.6 Key highlights & statistics
Over 50 year old self employed
Year Mllion Person

14

11

2014
2002

1 2

Part time employment % of total

employment
2040
2030
2020
2010
2000
1990
1980
1 2

Year %
Temporary Employee % of total Employee
Year %

32.02

26.5

2014
2002

1 2
Financial Highlights of Freelancer
 Top 15 freelancer cities in Europe in 2016
1. Berlin, Germany
2. Madrid, Spain
3. Hamburg, Germany
4. Rome, Italy
5. Barcelona, Spain
6. Paris, France
7. Munich, Germany
8. Milan, Italy
9. Cologne, Germany
10. Valencia, Spain
11. Turin, Italy
12. Dusseldorf, Germany
13. Sevilla, Spain
14. Vienna, Austria
15. Nuremberg, Germany
 Top 15 Freelancer skills 2015
1. PHP
2. Java
3. CSS
4. JavaScript
5. MySQL
6. HTML
7. iPhone
8. Cocoa
9. WordPress
10. Graphic Design
11. Ruby on Rails
12. Adobe Photoshop
13. Adobe Illustrator
14. C#
15. Magento
 Top 05 European freelancer countries

• Germany
• Italy
• Spain
• France
• Austria
3. TRENDS OF FREELANCING IN EUROPE

The today's fragmentation of media is passing at an incredibly high speed on several

platforms, especially in Europe. In the following will be explained why.
We are no simply talking about computers anymore. We are talking about the
increasing role of smartphones, tablets, gaming platforms and a variety of emerging
devices.
People consume content anywhere, anytime and computers are no longer the core of
the digital sphere. In fact, the more time is presently spent on apps rather than on the
web.
3.1 Europe, a leader in the use of smartphones
According to a study, European Economy have huge penetration of smartphones
and tablets, with over 66% .
3.2 The mobile commerce trend
On a commerce stand point, the numbers also show that Europeans have been
ready for a long time for the digital era and are now fully embracing it. Access to
social networks through mobile grew by 45% compared to a year ago. 10% of
smartphone users bought a product or service from their devices; while 16% used
them to compare prices between different institutions.
3.3 Encouraging younger generation
The gaming industry is booming, social networking is rising, online trading has
increased by 2 digits every year. This sounds like a pretty idyllic place. Which is a
big thing considering how bad Europe got hit by the 2008 economic meltdown.
With a 52% youth unemployment rate, Europe needs jobs, a lot of them.
This is why those numbers are so encouraging for the younger generation. The
same generation which Europe would need in society to create new ideas, brings
new investors and new companies.