Together with
LinkedIn’s freelancer-focused Services Marketplace has exploded in growth, putting the job-focused social platform on a path to become a key marketplace for work.
Why It Hits: As several white-collar industries continue to shed employees en masse as interest rates remain stubbornly high, hundreds of thousands of people are looking for work… and when they can’t land full-time jobs, they’re resorting to freelance work to piece together a living.
Between The Resumes: LinkedIn may be the center of the job-hunting universe.
- The company announced that Services Marketplace, which launched in 2021, has grown 48% this year, with a total of 10 million people having created pages on the feature so far.
- Service requests (potential clients requesting proposals from workers) are also up 65%, averaging eight requests per minute.
- But LinkedIn is mum on how many of those requests are being converted to actual work hires. The company also didn’t provide much information on any other commercial work trends through the feature.
The Future: According to TechCrunch, more than 100,000 people have been laid off from just the tech industry. That means a lot of people are looking for work, turning to LinkedIn and competing platforms like Fiverr and Upwork. Services Marketplace is still a small business for LinkedIn, but it is driving sign-ups for its Premium subscription tier (which is heavily used to draw more interest from job seekers). If hiring doesn’t pick up in a meaningful way, expect many people to start building careers by piecing together freelance jobs… whether they want to or not.
TOGETHER WITH CANVA
No design skills needed! 🪄✨
Canva Pro is the design software that makes design simple, convenient, and reliable. Create what you need in no time! Jam-packed with time-saving tools that make anyone look like a professional designer.