More and more workers are turning to the gig economy in their search for jobs.
The explosion in freelance gigs – especially in tech – means employers are always on the lookout for new talent, but what skills are most in-demand?
Well, the largest global freelancing website Upwork have just released its newest quarterly index of the hottest skills in the U.S. freelance job market.
The Upwork Skills Index ranks the site’s 20 fastest-growing skills in a quarterly series, shedding light on new and emerging skills as an indication of freelance job market trends.
The 20 fastest-growing freelance skills in 2025 experienced more than 130 percent year-on-year growth in demand, while demand for the top ten skills grew more than 400 percent compared to the same time last year.
Scroll down for the list in full…
Definition: The gig economy is a labour market that is distinguished by the prevalence of short-term contracts or freelance work rather than permanent jobs.
As opposed to regular salaries, employees get paid in return for the ‘gigs’ they perform.
- Blockchain In Q1 blockchain saw 6000 percent year-on-year growth, making it the fastest-growing skill out of more than 5000 skills on Upwork!
- Tensorflow Google’s Tensorflow is being used in machine learning to solve tech problems worldwide.
- Amazon DynamoDB Companies are actively searching for tech talent that can work with Amazon’s NoSQL database service.
- Voice over Demand for voice over talent has risen as companies shift away from traditional agencies and towards freelance talent.
- Subtitling Similar to above – organisations are turning to freelancers for submitting work.
Best of the rest…
6. Art direction
7. Content strategy
8. Computer vision
9. Microsoft Power BI
10. Augmented reality
11. Chatbot development
12. React native
13. Media buying
14. Go development
15. Information security
16. Scala development
17. Instagram API
18. Adobe premiere
19. Machine learning
20. AngularJS development