Data from oDesk Tracks Web Worker Opportunities
There are some interesting new statistics out from oDesk, an online staffing marketplace and management platform that can be particularly useful for web workers looking for remote jobs. We interviewed the CEO, Gary Swart, here. oDesk is reporting that with the economic downturn there is a pronounced upswing in the number of job seekers using its online service, as discussed by InfoWorld and Computerworld here. Meanwhile, oDesk is out with some specific numbers on remote tech job categories where you can find the least competition combined with the best opportunities.
Here are the details.
According to Computerworld: “About 20,000 people looking for jobs signed on to oDesk Corp.’s online staffing marketplace in November, the largest monthly increase — by at least 40 percent–” that the CEO has seen since joining the company in 2005. There is also an uptick in the number of contract jobs oDesk is listing according to the report: 4,600, or about twice as many as there were at the same time last year. It’s unlikely that the number of remote tech jobs will grow at the same rate as the number of job seekers, but there is hope.
oDesk has also examined its own data on hiring and job availability trends. They’ve produced this post and this one on remote tech jobs where competition is minimized and opportunities are maximized.
When we interviewed Gary Swart a few months ago, he made the point that web developers are always in high demand for remote jobs, and that appears to jump out of the data now. Jobs for workers with AJAX, PHP, XML, JavaScript, MySQL and CSS skills have all jumped up in recent months, even amidst the gloomy economic times. From Ruby on Rails jobs to Drupal-oriented positions, there also appear to be healthy opportunities for developers with open source skills. If you’re in the market for more web work, take a look at the blog posts from oDesk for where you may find fertile territory.
Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.
