Elance is pleased to release its first installment of the “Elance Online Work Index”, a composite index based on job posts and skills data drawn from 100,000 jobs posted on Elance over recent months.

The Elance Online Work Index reveals that businesses are actively pursuing candidates who have design, computer programming, technical, online marketing, research, writing and administrative skills. Companies that are hiring online professionals to supplement existing staff are seeking expertise in Graphic Design, PHP, MySQL, Article Writing, HTML, Adobe Illustrator, WordPress, Photoshop, Flash, Search Engine Optimization and Blogs.

With shrinking budgets and growing work loads, marketing and IT departments are increasingly turning to online work as an alternative to hiring full-time. Online work allows businesses to connect with independent professionals to get their work done while maintaining flexibility. In February, companies posted 23,000 new jobs on Elance, building on the 250,000 jobs and $100m worth of online work posted on Elance in the last 12 months.

Notable hiring trends surfacing in February’s Elance Online Work Index include:

Technology

• Companies and consultants are looking for and getting help building world-class websites, hiring experts in PHP (#2), MySQL (#3), HTML (#6), CSS (#8), XHTML (#17 - up ten spots), Joomla (#19) and AJAX (#25).
• As businesses look for help driving revenue and collecting payments, PayPal (#41) integration skills have appeared on the list for the first time.

Marketing 

• Graphic Design (#1) tops the charts for the second month in a row with huge demand from companies and agencies for creative services including Logo Design (#4), Adobe Illustrator (#9), Photoshop (#11), and Flash (#12).
• Marketers have discovered the customer acquisition power of great online content, and consequently, content creation skills are hot including Article Writing (#5), Web Content (#7), WordPress (#10), Blogs (#13), Online Writing (#22), and eBooks (#26).
• Generating top line revenue is on everyone’s mind, and as such businesses are hiring people with the skills to drive revenue including Search Engine Optimization (#15), Lead Generation (#16), Marketing Strategy (#18), Sales (#27), and Market Research (#29).

Administrative

• Businesses continue to need help with administrative work as illustrated by demand for Admin Assistant (#14), Data Entry (#20), Microsoft Excel (#24), and Typing (#36).

While companies seek out workers with specialized skills, Elance empowers independent professionals to demonstrate their real-world expertise while differentiating themselves in the online labor market by getting tested in any of the more than 250 skills tests offered for free on Elance. More than 12,000 skills tests were taken in February, with popular tests including PHP5, Adobe Photoshop CS3, CSS 2.0, Microsoft Excel, and HTML 4.01.

“Businesses in this economy need to do more with less while still remaining competitive. As a result, the demand for freelance and contract work continues to grow. Data from Elance offers a snapshot of the skills and talents that will continue to be in high demand in the broader US and global economy.” said Steve King, partner at Emergent Research. “Companies now have direct access to a diverse and skilled talent pool that gives small and mid-sized companies the flexibility they need to stay efficient and competitive.” 

** Denotes new entrant to Top 100

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