Elance released its quarterly Online Employment Report today and it shows a steady rise in earnings for online talent - particularly for those in IT fields. Online professionals earned over $23 million in the second quarter of 2010 on Elance, which represents a 45% year-over-year increase - the steepest increase yet for the company.
While IT continued to be the number one job category, Marketing (including SEO, Internet Marketing and Lead Generation) showed the largest growth in provider earnings year over year (73%). Business interest in utilizing social media channels continued to grow in Q2 at Elance, moving Social Media Marketing into the #4 spot, while Email Marketing moved up a position to slide into the #7 position.
The IT category however remains the top performing job category with a 44% increase in provider earnings in Q2 year over year. Fueling this growth are companies embracing cloud computing platforms and mobile devices that need to tap into highly skilled and qualified work teams. After making an entry into the top 50 skills in Q1 2010, Google App Engine, the cloud-based application development platform, showed the single largest increase in demand with over a 10x growth quarter over quarter. With this increase, Google App Engine (#37) moved past Amazon Web Services (#40) as the cloud platform highest in demand in Q2.
Demand for skilled Apple iPad developers (thanks perhaps to a new operating system and SDK released last month) experienced a nearly 200% increase in demand, sending it up 24 positions to #16 on the IT skills chart.
Demand for specific mobile technologies continued to trend upwards throughout 2010 with iPhone (#8), Android (#25) and BlackBerry (#36) all steadily climbing the charts. With the launch of its new app store at the beginning of the quarter, BlackBerry showed a 92% growth in demand, moving it to #36 on the IT skills chart.
"Frustrated by the traditional on-site staffing model, businesses are embracing virtual and hybrid work structures which allow them to tap into highly skilled online teams on a flexible basis. Talented workers with hot skills such as Google App Engine development, HTML5, SEO and Social Media Marketing are experiencing unprecedented demand for their expertise and can find steady work and growing incomes," said Ellen Pack, Vice President of Marketing at Elance.