U.S. Skilled Freelancers Are Estimated to Have Earned $234 Billion in 2020, According to Fiverr’s Freelance Economic Impact Report - Seite 2

• Miami overtakes Chicago to become the third largest market for skilled independents. Miami, which ranks 7^th by total population, saw its skilled independent workforce grow by more than 10 percent in just one year, from 2017 to 2018, the latest year for which data are available from the Census Bureau. This increase led it to surpass Chicago and become the third largest market by number of workers in 2018 at just under 200,000, a lead that it held onto in our 2020 projections. In comparison, Miami’s total population grew 0.4% from 2017 to 2018, on par with the U.S. as a whole.

• Warm weather markets are heating up for skilled independent workers. In addition to Miami overtaking Chicago, other warm-weather markets climbed the rankings as well in 2018 (the latest year for which data are available from the Census Bureau). By revenue, Phoenix surpassed Seattle, Las Vegas overtook Baltimore, and Riverside climbed above Portland. For all three markets that rose in rank, revenue growth was driven by creative and professional services. In fact, Riverside was the fourth fastest growing market for creative revenues from 2013-2018 at 53 percent, while Las Vegas ranked fifth for professional services revenue growth at 43 percent. Also, San Diego and Phoenix edged out Minneapolis by workforce size.

• Creative professionals in Los Angeles and New York City combined earned just under $11 billion in revenue for 2020. Los Angeles and New York City remain the two top markets for creative professionals, each with well over 100,000 workers. New York creative professionals earned over $5 billion in revenue, while Los Angeles actually generated more revenue from these workers by almost $1 billion ($5.9 billion). Nashville only has about 20,000 creative skilled independents but is the only other market where these workers collectively earn at least $1 billion.

Hilary Ross-Rojas, Research Director at Rockbridge Associates adds, “Skilled freelancers are highly satisfied with their independent work, more so than the traditionally employed, contributing to their optimism for the future and grit through the adverse economic conditions of last year. They have big plans for the post-pandemic future, with new marketing and offerings and more training and education to support their business expansion, and we look forward to expanding our insights on this population with Fiverr in the years to come.”