Remote has analysed data from one of the world’s largest contractor marketplaces to reveal the most commonly outsourced job roles and how much business owners can expect to pay for such talent.
Outsourcing certain responsibilities to freelancers has become an increasingly popular solution to many of the challenges today’s businesses face – but which responsibilities and job roles are best suited to outsourcing?
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The Most Commonly Outsourced Job Roles
To discover the best type of contractor or freelancer jobs to outsource, Global HR Solution experts at Remote have analysed data from one of the world’s largest contractor marketplaces, to reveal the most commonly outsourced job roles and how much you can expect to pay to hire such talent.
The Remote team has also identified the size of the freelancer market in all 38 OECD countries to reveal where to search if you are looking to outsource talent at scale for your business.
Marketing And Web Design Are The Most Common Job Functions To Outsource Internationally
Remote analysed over 313,504 freelancer job adverts published online to reveal the most common job functions that businesses around the world outsource.
| Rank | Job function | % of freelance projects posted for this job function |
| 1 | Marketing | 32.80% |
| 2 | Web Design | 10.65% |
| 3 | Web Development | 8.73% |
| 4 | E-commerce Development | 8.59% |
| 5 | Content Writing | 8.18% |
Marketing is the top job function that businesses are looking to outsource internationally to contractors as this job function makes up 33% of freelancer job adverts posted online.
Many other skilled roles such as web design, web development, and e-commerce development are also high in demand, accounting for 10.65%, 8.73%, and 8.59% of jobs posted.
Data Entry And Transcription Services Are The Most Affordable Job Functions To Outsource, While International & Immigration Law Is The Least Affordable
Remote analysed the hourly rates advertised on freelancer platforms to discover which job functions are the most and least affordable. Data entry and transcription services prove to be the most affordable job functions to outsource to contractors or freelancers costing just £10.61 an hour on average.
The 5 most affordable job functions to outsource:
| Rank | Job function | Average cost per hour to hire a freelancer (GBP) |
| 1 | Data Entry & Transcription Services | £10.61 |
| 2 | Customer Experience & Tech Support | £10.68 |
| 3 | Market Research & Product Reviews | £11.84 |
| 4 | Virtual Assistance | £12.65 |
| 5 | Data Extraction/ETL | £15.84 |
Customer experience and tech support follow in second place, costing businesses only £10.68 an hour. This is followed by market research and product reviewers which come in third place at £11.84 an hour on average.
On the other hand, International and immigration law is the least affordable job function to outsource to a contractor or freelancer. On average, individuals specializing in this highly skilled role charge £78.74 an hour. Niche roles with dedicated expertise are often hard to fill with locally available talent, so the flexibility to source an international contractor for short term project work can be well worth the short term expense.
The 5 least affordable job functions to outsource:
| Rank | Job function | Average cost per hour to hire a freelancer (GBP) |
| 1 | International & Immigration Law | £78.74 |
| 2 | Photography | £78.39 |
| 3 | Public Relations | £66.46 |
| 4 | Community Management & Tagging | £65.68 |
| 5 | Marketing & Brand Strategy | £63.45 |
The Best-Value Job Functions To Outsource Internationally Is Web Development, With Savings Of More Than £11 p/h
For many projects, a short-term contractor may be a more sensible hire than a full-time, long-term employee. While engaging contractors over a long period of time can lead to misclassification issues, hiring short-term contractors is a great way to take advantage of short windows of opportunity or to accelerate the completion of specific projects.
Remote compared the average hourly rate of a freelancer to the average hourly rate of a full-time employee in the UK, based on salary alone, to reveal the best-value job functions to outsource to contractors or freelancers.
The top 5 best value job functions in the UK to outsource to international contractors:
| Rank | Job function | Average cost per hour to hire a freelancer (GBP) | Average cost per hour to hire a full-time employee (GBP) | Saving per hour when hiring a freelancer |
| 1 | Web Development | £27.50 | £39.22 | £11.71 |
| 2 | Market Research & Product Reviews | £11.71 | £19.12 | £7.40 |
| 3 | Data Mining & Management | £23.61 | £30.16 | £6.56 |
| 4 | Customer Experience & Tech Support | £10.57 | £14.91 | £4.34 |
| 5 | Data Extraction/ETL | £15.67 | £18.48 | £2.81 |
Remote’s research found that the job function with the biggest gap between the average cost per hour to hire a freelancer and the average cost per hour to hire a full-time employee is web development. On average, businesses can save £11.71 per hour with a contractor.
Other job functions included in the top 3 are market research & product reviews, and data mining & management, which offer hourly savings of £7.40 and £6.56 respectively.
The Uk Has The 5th Largest Proportion Of Freelancers Of All 38 OECD Countries, With Designers Being The Most Common Job Function
Remote and flexible working policies mean employers and hiring managers are no longer bound by geographical constraints. This has drastically widened the talent pool and means any local skills shortages can be bypassed by simply extending the search for talent to new locations.
With this in mind, Remote has looked at the countries with the highest number of freelance and contract workers available amongst the 38 OECD nations. Here are the top 10:
| Rank | OECD Country | % of OECD freelancers in this country | Most common freelancer job function available in this country | Second most common freelancer job function available in this country | Third most common freelancer job function available in this country |
| 1 | United States | 22.09% | Writing / Editing | Art / Creative | Design |
| 2 | Turkey | 13.55% | Design | Web Development | Art / Creative |
| 3 | Colombia | 9.54% | Art / Creative | Design | Writing / Editing |
| 4 | Mexico | 8.53% | Design | Art / Creative | Writing / Editing |
| 5 | United Kingdom | 6.35% | Design | Business Development | Project Management |
| 6 | Spain | 5.30% | Art / Creative | Design | Web Development |
| 7 | Italy | 4.94% | Art / Creative | Design | Writing / Editing |
| 8 | Canada | 4.67% | Design | Data Analyst | Business Development |
| 9 | Australia | 3.05% | Business Development | Design | Data Analyst |
| 10 | Germany | 2.98% | Design | Web Development | Business Development |
The United States came out on top with almost a quarter (22.09%) of all the freelancers in OECD countries being based there. In the states, writing or editing is the most popular job function for freelancers.
The UK is home to the fifth largest proportion of OECD freelancers with 6.35%. After design, business development and project management are the next most common job functions taken on by the UK’s freelancers.
The OECD country with the fewest freelancers is Iceland with 0.02%. On this basis, Iceland is the least suitable option for finding international freelancers at scale.
Nadia Vatalidis VP of people at Remote adds:
“Employers can benefit hugely from hiring contractors based overseas. On top of the financial benefits, sourcing and hiring freelancers is often a much more efficient way to scale a team, and freelancers who are specialists in their fields can bring years of experience using a specific tool, the know-how to solve problems that arise, and even valuable industry connections.”
About the client:
Remote’s mission is to open up the vast potential of the world for every person, business and country. We envision a world where every person and business truly belongs in the global market.
