Jobs at UpWork sunk 31% in past month

[vladimirbalt]

Hope I'm not posting this against any Upwork rules but really wanted to hear what the community and administrators have to say on the subject. According to my experience and various articles on the web, there are way less jobs than usually. I know most of us have been "paranoid" about this for some time and wondering what's going on (especially on many groups/forums outside Upwork) but it really does seem there is a problem with the number of (good) jobs. To reference an article from media.thinkum:

Beginning in October, the total number of jobs on the site plummeted from a high of nearly 91,600 opportunities in October to just 63,000 as of this week.

Is there a real issue going on or is it just a connects/fees purge that needs to happen before things get back to normal (of some sort). I've been on Upwork since 2015, so since the merge of oDesk and Elance and can't honestly remember the last time it was this problematic. Especially for this time of the year. 

Article referenced:

https://media.thinknum.com/articles/gig-economy-broken/

[alphazomgy]

Interesting.

When it comes to Upwork's numbers, nothing is certain.

The ban wave is also happening at this time. 

Conicidence? 

[tlsanders]

If this is accurate, I suspect that it is a product of Upwork's (unconfirmed--just my observations) shift away from advertising to smaller and one-off clients.

[bevcam]

That's very interesting. AB 5 legislation is aimed particularly at big business in the USA and the law is only relevant to US companies, so it's only UW's US clients that are affected for all hires.

If that's correct, I assume UW would have to shift focus to international clients, big and small, to improve revenue.

[moonraker]

Ouch. 

I found it interesting that the number of freelancers appears to have experienced no change in the rate of increase. Not even paid connects seem to have deterred people from signing up, although it might be interesting if we could see how many previously active accounts have gone idle. 

[tlsanders]

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Bev C wrote:

That's very interesting. AB 5 legislation is aimed particularly at big business in the USA and the law is only relevant to US companies, so it's only UW's US clients that are affected for all hires.

If that's correct, I assume UW would have to shift focus to international clients, big and small, to improve revenue.

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 Yet, Upwork has repeatedly said recently that it is not interested in small clients.

Upwork won't have to shift away from large U.S. clients in response to this law--Upwork can be the clients' solution to this problem, since one arm of the company already hires people on as W-2 employees rather than freelancers for certain companies.

[bevcam]

I said that I found it interesting and made a vague assumption based on an article link from the OP, Tiffany. I have limited knowledge of US labour law and know very little about UW marketing policies ( which most people seem to be curious about). 

Although I've seen some change, UW still works for me. So consider my comments as thinking out loud. I didn't say "shift away" - I said "shift focus". There's quite a difference. 

It was a vague opinion on an open platform where any interested party can comment. Nothing more 😉

[tlsanders]

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Bev C wrote:

It was a vague opinion on an open platform where any interested party can comment.

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Right. Like me. I'm an interested party. I commented. You seem to be the one objecting to open participation, since my response triggered a lecture about your previous post that is longer than the actual post.

[zoomconcepts]

Gonna take a guess that a good portion of smaller to medium clients bounced when their basic plan dropped/rearranged simple reports they were already used to, and they were asked to upgrade to get them back. + The shift to different target clients they've been talking about in every earnings call since the company went public. 

[a_lipsey]

I have not really noticed any slow down in my sector. I think it's highly dependent on your sector and the way you run your business. 

[tlsanders]

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Amanda L wrote:

I have not really noticed any slow down in my sector. I think it's highly dependent on your sector and the way you run your business.

I agree with this, but I don't think the dust has settled yet.  A couple of months ago, I was seeing a significant uptick in good invitations. But, over the past 30-45 days, I have seen a definite decline in the availability of good jobs in my sector. A much higher percentage are listing as intermediate or entry level with low pricing. My perception is that it isn't an influx of lower-end jobs, but that those are holding steady while the higher-paying, quality-seeking postings have diminished.

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[zen_abe]

Sad.

I applied for over a dozen jobs this month alone, to get over the Rising Talent status.
Saw one little technical writing job that matches perfectly with my current job (trading platform), bid for as low as 10 dollars just to get it over quickly and get Top Rated. Client didn't even bat an eye.


Many of these so called "clients" don't look back to the jobs they posted.
And yes, I made sure I applied for at least 70% or higher hire rate.

Some jobs even contain canned sentences as if they're hired by an evil greater being:
"We are a company specializing in {INSERT INDUSTRY OR SECTOR} looking for a freelancer that can {INSERT FREELANCER'S QUALIFICATIONS}...."

Not even the supposed fields are filled yet!
Jesus H. Christ.

[wlyonsatl]

My profile views and invitations have dropped by at least half over the past four weeks.

[bguillaume]

This is the same for me.. For some reasons, it seems like since we have to buy connects there is a lot more clients unresponsive. My hiring rates have been going down by 70 to 80%

[martina_plaschka]

That's a bunch of baloney. Just now the number of jobs is 116K, which is without US-only jobs that I can't access, and the highest number I've ever seen since I started to look at that number from time to time in the last 18 months. 

[tlbp]

I think, aside from the minimum threshold needed to achieve critical mass, the number of jobs available is a pretty meaningless metric. I am only interested in quality jobs, so a million low-quality jobs are worthless to me. And, if a substantial percentage of jobs listed don't result in a hire, the number of listings is even more meaningless. 

I would absolutely recommend against using any lead generation method that doesn't result in a viable ROI. If you are buying connects and either not finding roles worth applying to or applying and not getting hired, then stop. Come up with a new strategy. Run your business like a business and ruthlessly cut non-profitable channels of client acquisition. 

[bd4b8779]

I am an employer on upwork, done a lot of jobs and spent a lot of money through my busienss here

What recently put me off was not being able to talk to freelancers anymore, i logged a job, couldnt call the freelancer to assess their capabilities, so hired them for the job and STILL couldnt talk to them to asses them for the job, basically they want us to communicate only through text and that just doesnt work for us and the type of technical requirements we have

I came back to see if this has changed, if not i will be looking for people on another platform as this has become unusable to me unfortunately

[kochubei_valeria]

Hi All,

We appreciate the discussion as well as experiences and observations being shared here.

Neville, you should be able to communicate with a freelancer while interviewing them and  before hiring them. You can use Upwork Voice/Video feature but also currently it's not against the ToS to communicate through other means as long as payments are processed on Upwork.