Want a high-paying freelance gig? These are the top 5 industries

Between the Great Resignation and the waves of tech layoffs, more people are interested in freelance work. Freelancing hit an all-time high in 2022, with 39% of professionals taking on some form of contract work, according to a survey from Upwork. The report finds that freelancers contributed $1.35 trillion to the U.S. economy in 2022, up $50 billion from the previous year.



“In 2022, the freelancing industry saw a significant surge in the number of jobs and projects for technology-related skills, especially those for highly skilled, niche categories such as programming, coding, web development, and software development,” says Matt Barrie, CEO of Freelancer.com. “There are several freelance jobs where people earn six figures a year plus.”



With an opportunity to create a steady and solid income, you may be considering joining the trend by taking on some freelance gigs. A Freelancer.com’s Freelancing in 2022 report identified the five top categories.



1. Design



According to Freelancer projects data, the highest paying jobs per year on the platform are design jobs, particularly for UX design, website design, Photoshop, and Illustrator. Freelance tech designers can make as much as $21,964 a month and $263,571 per year. For example, one freelancer on the Freelance.com platform nabbed a $41,000 two-month gig to help design an eCommerce SaaS platform.



2. Game development



The second-highest-paying type of freelance work is game development, which includes skills in game design and Unity 3D. According to the survey, the most popular type of game design job is Android Game Development. This type of work can pay up to $21,541 a month and $258,501 per year. One freelancer, for example, earned more than $85,000 in nine-month period with two game development projects.



3. Coding



Coming in third is coding, which pays as much as $18,259 per month or $219,108 per year at the high-end of the platform. Jobs include work with Java, HTML, CSS, PHP, and backend development. One experienced Tailwind CSS developer was paid more than $20,000 per month to create systems for a cloud-based holiday home rental company.



4. Mobile app development



Mobile app development is the fourth highest paying category, according to the survey. This work requires freelancers to have iOS and Android app development skills, paying as much as $12,100 per month or $145,200 per year when looking at the higher-paying jobs on the platform.



5. Website development



Finally, website development rounds out the list as the fifth highest paying job category. It’s also the most popular job type on the Freelancer.com platform, with gigs for people who are proficient in WordPress, PHP, MySQL, and HTML. Freelancers can earn up to $11,826 per month or $141,923 per year.



Barrie says the surge in tech and IT jobs on Freelancer.com is expected to remain through 2023 as companies continue to lay off staff and as new generative AI tools are introduced, creating more jobs in AI and machine learning.



Trending high-paying jobs



In 2022, Freelancer.com saw many new trending technologies or topics featured in the list for some of the highest paying jobs per project. The top five include:



Drone photography with an average project rate of $5,325 SurveyMonkey with an average project rate of $4,569 Data engineer with an average project rate of $3,715 Virtual reality with an average project rate of $3,267 Roblox with an average project rate of $3,142



“Drone photography was certainly a surprise, and it’s new in terms of the highest-paying trending jobs at the moment,” says Barrie. “There’s also a big boom in virtual reality due to the metaverse.”



Freelance job trends are due to three things, says Barrie: “First, with all the layoffs happening in technology, there’s a lot of people who are in between jobs and are looking for work online,” he says. “Second, with inflation crimping budgets, small businesses can’t afford to hire full time, so they hire on-demand. And third, is that in tough times, we see a lot of startup businesses form because people are in between jobs, and they have a go at starting a company.”



If you’re thinking of freelancing, Barrie says it’s one of the best times in history due to new AI tools. “Just about any skill you can possibly think of you can now get AI to help super skill you up,” he says. “It’s making everyone sort of a jack of all trades at a fairly competent level. As a freelancer, you’ve got a lot of work opportunity ahead of you.”