Online Employment Growing Despite Economy
While unemployment may be hovering at 9 percent, the job market for online employment is getting stronger.
According to the latest quarterly report by Elance, the demand for online workers has increased to record levels in the last quarter of 2010. Elance is an online employment platform that posts jobs and resumes of job seekers. "This growth is significant because the 4th quarter is generally a slow period for jobs," said Amy Murphy, director of Corporate and Community Services for Joliet Junior College (JJC). "I believe this could be a trend that will continue throughout 2011."
According to Elance, employers are posting more than 40,000 new jobs every month and online workers have earned more than $340 million on the platform. "Elance reports that businesses posted more than 105,000 total jobs in Q4 2010 producing a 38 percent increase over the same quarter last year," said Murphy. "Additionally, online workers earned more than $27 million in that quarter with most of the jobs falling into three categories: creative, marketing, and operations." To read the full report, go to the Elance website. Additional trends noted by Elance include the following:
IT Growth
Information Technology should dominate growth throughout 2011. Spending on technology-related work outpaced other categories in the last quarter.
Mobile Moves Forward with Android at the Top
The need for experts in mobile technology is expected to grow at a fast pace as the market for iPad programmers continues to grow 15 percent from quarter to quarter and iPhone programmers continues growing by a healthy 10 percent. Android developers are in even greater demand growing by 20 percent quarter to quarter. The need for these workers is unlikely to slow down as Verizon and other carriers start selling Apple products and new Android devices continue to hit the market.
WordPress and the Content Hungry World
Web developers favor open-source platforms such as Drupal and Joomla to help them publish content. WordPress, however, is the most popular choice as demand for WordPress experts grew 15 percent quarter to quarter last year. This is the first time a web content management system has become one of the top three skills businesses want. It solidifies WordPress as the champion of content - at least for now.
Online Marketing Gets a Greater Share of the Media Dollar
Demand for these professionals is up 74 percent year-over-year. It is becoming increasingly popular with businesses as a way to promote their branding and customer acquisition strategies. Social media marketing shows a 20 percent growth.
Other trends include growth in demand for worker in Facebook, HTML5, and Texas as the new hot spot for online employment.
"These trends indicate a need for more online workers who have the training and the skills needed to innovate and solve problems," said Murphy. "That's why we are constantly evaluating and improving the computer and technology programs we offer at JJC. Because the industry can change in a few minutes, graduates of our programs learn how to be flexible and perpetual learners."
To know more about the Information Technology programs offered at JJC, call Amy Murphy at (815) 280-1418, or e-mail amurphy@jjc.edu.
To learn more about this story, go to: http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/archive/2011/02/07/demand-for-web-workers-continues-to-rise.aspx