Who are Israel’s most in-demand online freelancers?

The past year shook up the job market, particularly for small businesses and freelancers. Many went out of business, people were laid off, and some became self-employed. In addition, traditional forms of employment changed and many companies began employing freelancers. Businesses underwent digital transformations in order to survive the changing job market, and this created abundant opportunities for small businesses and freelancers who provide digital services. Although some pandemic restrictions have been lifted, many are still conducting business online, as it has become increasingly clear that businesses must have an online presence.

The most in-demand online services in Israel were mainly, but not exclusively, related to digital transformation. According to statistics from an analysis titled “Small Business Needs Index,” conducted by Fiverr, which analysed data based on the millions of searches run on its platforms to employ freelancers, it found that the demand for childrens’ books’ illustrators leapt by 231%, while searches for designing presentations jumped by 133%, and for singers by 118%.

Unsurprisingly, the demand for small businesses and freelancers that provide web services rose as well, such as building WordPress websites (166%), building mobile apps (146%), or managing social media (91%). Freelancers were needed in the gamings sector as well, where demand for skin-creators for Minecraft leapt in Israel by 138%, and for services for the PC game Rocket League rose by 132%.

The transition to online services raised demands in Israel for account creators on sites like eBay (85%), animation creators for video clips (85%), and YouTube video editors (75%).

According to the report, over the past six months there were five global trends that grew significantly in terms of searches: creating digital presences for businesses; building businesses anew, using creativity as a tool to generate revenue; entrepreneurship, and new technologies.

Global demand for services from Amazon Virtual Assistant leapt by 778%, and demands also rose for store design on Shopify (302%), and for designing websites with Wix (102%), showing that small businesses saw an urgent need to create or improve their online presence. There was also a demand for building food service apps, managing customer accounts with Quickbooks (83%), and bookkeeping (40%), which signal that businesses are concerned with improving and managing their finances and improving their profitability. In one example, restaurants began building their own apps to cut down on food delivery app fees.

In the fashion arena, some businesses turned to using creativity as a tool for generating revenues. According to a report, demands rose for custom t-shirt design (106%), designing clothes (56%), and digitization of embroidery (46%). The pandemic accelerated innovation and initiatives of designer services, with business card design being in high demand (106%), as well as trademark-related services (82%), and the demand for market surveys (54%). Demand for new technologies that assist managing businesses also grew, including for Elementor Pro (89%), Getresponse (91%), and Autocad (32%).