SPECIAL REPORT: Online Employment 2010 Review and Future Predictions About the State of the Borderless Economy

Online work is creating an economy of opportunity–where work is not linked to location, but to skills, experience and abilites. This shift towards a flexible, on-demand workforce is becoming an established hiring model for companies of all sizes to get more done with less, scale to meet demand, and increase efficiency. For workers, this allows them to manage their own work-life balance, get paid based on merit, and access an entire world of work opportunities.

Highlights

• Employers spend more than $115M on Online Work in 2010, Job opportunities double over 2009 to 620,000
• Mobile a Best Bet – Employer Demand for Android Up 680%, iPhone up 152% since 2009
• Social Media Opportunities Pick up Speed – Facebook Has 343% More Opportunities in 2010
• Contractor Hot Spots: Philippines, India, U.S.

Preditions for 2011

• Online work will continue to double year-over-year, while local employment will not rebound to pre-recession levels.
• In the next year, more than 500,000 employers will tap cloud-based workforces for the first time, including 25% of the Fortune 500.
• The number of people looking to online work as the primary or sole source of their income will double over 2011.
• Hiring of online workers by non-U.S. companies will explode in 2011. Proportionally, U.S. spending in this area will grow more slowly next year, and will represent 65% of the total spent on online work.

Online Employment Data courtesy of oDesk, the largest and fastest-growing global employment platform.

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