By The iLabour Index
Freelance online workers such as software developers, graphic designers, and data labelers have less work because of the COVIDー19 pandemic, dampening hopes for those who lost jobs and were planning to find work online, according to the latest iLabour Project Index.
The iLabour Project which is based at the Oxford Internet Institute analyzed data from leading online labor platforms and found that by mid-March 2020, when the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic, the Online Labour Index was in deep decline, in comparison to the same period in 2018 and 2019.
Usually, according to the Index, demand drops during the year-end holiday season and then rises again to reach a plateau in February, persisting until May.
“For policymakers, it suggests that many self-employed people, including online workers, will probably need financial support to get through the crisis.”