The State of Freelance: 9 Top Statistics, Facts, and Trends (2024)

Freelancing is a global trend, and it’s gaining momentum. Beyond the obvious reasons why — the growth of remote work, the AI revolution, and businesses’ desire to scale their workforces based on project needs — there are cultural ones.

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Freelancing is becoming a new lifestyle, especially for Gen Z, which prioritizes a healthy work-life balance and rejects rigidity and traditional 9-to-5 work.

In this article, we’ll discuss nine trends that illustrate the state of the world of freelance in 2024.

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1. The share of freelancers in the global workforce is growing

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Findings from a recent World Bank report show that the online freelance workforce is much larger than previously thought. Globally, the number is somewhere between 154 million and 435 million, and freelancers account for up to 12% of the global workforce.

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In the U.S., the number of freelancers increased by 90% between 2020 and 2024. Statista predicts the trend will continue: by 2027, 86.5 million people will be freelancing in the United States, more than half of the country's total labor force.

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2. The freelance platform market is growing

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According to Mordor Intelligence, the freelance platform market will reach $14.17 billion by 2029, which represents a CAGR of nearly 17%.

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Companies' need for a flexible workforce is driving much of this growth. Qualified freelancers can be brought on quickly to handle urgent tasks and participate in projects that require narrow specializations — all without the logistical hassles of formal hiring. This helps companies adapt to changing situations and scale faster.

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Business Research Company notes that established businesses are a big part of this trend, with 48% of Fortune 500 companies using freelance platforms in 2022.

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3. More professionals are freelancing full-time

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According to Fiverr's Freelance Economic Impact Report, the percentage of freelancers without permanent full-time jobs is on the rise, growing from 61% in 2021 to 71% in 2023.

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Among people who combine full-time work with freelancing, 75% are highly satisfied with their side hustles, compared with only 47% who say that about their main jobs.

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4. Gen Z is choosing to freelance

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The simple fact is that by 2030, Zoomers will make up 30% of the U.S. labor force. We already know they’re not attracted to the kinds of professional lives their parents had. They always need to feel they’re growing and aren’t surrendering too much of their private life to their jobs.

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As Upwork notes, companies that understand and respond to Gen Z’s motivations will have access to the best talent of this generation.

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5. Freelancing is disrupting entire industries

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Shifts in demand and the internationalization of the skill market are changing even the most established industries, such as management consulting. As old models struggle to cope, freelance is filling the gap.

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Even as Ernst & Young is laying off dozens of partners in its U.S. divisions, independent consulting platforms with distributed teams are emerging, like Talmix, Expert Powerhouse, and Catalant. They’re helping businesses save money and handle even urgent tasks at all levels of the organization.

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6. AI is making freelancers more efficient

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AI is everywhere, from our social media feeds to the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2024. And it’s also helping freelancers knock a growing list of client tasks out of the park.

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The authors of the Fiverr study found that a freelancer using AI saves about eight hours per week on average. Projecting this number onto 2.76 million freelancers, we get over 22 million hours per week or 10,748 full-time jobs.

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7. HR is playing catch-up

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The blended workforce, with freelancers integrated into traditional teams of full-time employees, is a new reality. Typically, contingent workers are brought on for specific projects or tasks. Fiverr cites some telling statistics: 69% of employers surveyed hired freelancers after layoffs in 2023–2024, and over 99% plan to do so in 2025.

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The influx of contingent workers means employers need to rethink their HR strategies. As Harvard Business Review puts it, it’s time to rewrite the rules of engagement. Doing so will require a holistic, collaborative approach on the part of managers and HR departments.

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Way back in 2021, before it was cool, the early-stage investor Jon Younger said HR needs to learn how to deal with freelancers, who he predicted would become a significant part of companies' workforce.

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8. Freelancers are constantly upgrading their skills

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Nearly 90% of freelancers in the Fiverr survey agreed that their clients want professionals with specialized skills and expertise. That's why a majority of respondents (65%) upgraded their skills in 2023, and four in ten freelancers (42%) intended to do so in 2024.

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Research backs this up. In their book Open Talent: Leveraging the Global Workforce to Solve Your Biggest Challenges, John Winsor and Jin Hyun Paik write that freelancers spend 10 times more time learning new skills than full-time employees. Companies that learn to capitalize on this digital world of “open talent” will flourish in the market of the future.

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9. The freelance management system market is growing

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The freelance management system (FMS) market was bound to boom together with the rest of the freelance ecosystem. DataIntelo forecasts that it will grow from $5.25 billion in 2023 to $17.54 billion in 2032.

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An FMS is a cloud-based technology platform designed to streamline the management of freelancers. How do we know, you ask? We checked Mellow’s glossary of key terms of the New Work era.

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An FMS reduces the burden of managing contingent workers for companies and managers. With these platforms, you can search for and hire candidates using AI, quickly sign and share documents, and monitor compliance with legislation.

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The new world is knocking

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Freelancing is becoming a global phenomenon linking skilled, motivated contractors to companies around the world. If managers and HR start now, developing strategies to integrate global talent with in-house teams, learning what freelancers value, and mastering tools needed to work with them comfortably and safely, those businesses will be ready to thrive in the years to come.

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