Partner Article

In it for the love or the money?

PeoplePerHour research reveals the hourly rates for freelance workers in the UK and fastest growing hotspots.

• London boasts the highest paid freelancers, with workers requesting up £300 per hour
• Freelancers found in increasingly rural locations including Alderney in the Channel Islands and Orkney.
• £56.5m earned by freelancers on the platform to date.
• Globally freelancers on PeoplePerHour span 188 countries including Iceland and Madagascar.

The number of people in the UK who work on a freelance basis has skyrocketed in the last five years, reaching nearly 5 million and counting. The UK’s leading online freelance marketplace, PeoplePerHour, reports that the rise in the last three years alone has been meteoric with an increase of 433% since 2012.

PeoplePerHour have conducted research to show what these freelancers across the UK are actually charging per hour and using their recently launched interactive Heatmaps have highlighted who’s earning most money freelancing in the UK and where they are based.

Perhaps not surprisingly, Londoners command some of the highest figures, with many freelancers in Holborn and Elstree areas charging as much as £200-£300 per hour. This is significantly above the national average, which rests at £20-£21 for an hour’s freelance work. However, more than 69% of freelancers are based outside of the UK’s capital. Carmarthen in Wales perhaps surprisingly boasts the third highest hourly rate at £144.75/hour. Great Missenden, a small village in Buckinghamshire, also makes an appearance in the top ten, with £100/hour charged by freelancers residing there.

Designers, copywriters and developers are most in demand on the platform, with the latter commanding some of the highest hourly rates.

The following table show the top 10 towns and villages with the most highly paid freelance workers in the UK:

Location —- Hourly Freelance Rate

• Holborn—- 300.00
• Elstree—- 200.00
• Carmarthen—- 144.75
• Bromley—- 141.44
• Bramhall—- 100.00
• Chislehurst—- 100.00
• Farnham Royal—- 100.00
• Great Missenden—- 100.00
• Swanley—- 100.00
• New Barnet—- 99.00

Whilst London dominates with the highest hourly rates, it’s by no means the highest growth area for freelancing. Four of the five growth spots are found North of London with the highest growth found in York, with the number of freelancers found there up 195% since 2013. Hull, Durham and Northampton all make it into the top five.

The following table shows the top five UK hotspots with the highest growth:

City —- Growth

• York—- 195%
• Reading—- 115%
• Hull—- 78%
• Durham—- 72%
• Northampton—- 69%

Greater Manchester seems to be the most popular city in the UK for freelance workers at present, outside of London, with 5.7 per cent of the nation’s freelancers in residence. The list of the top ten freelancing locations is completed below, with the the highest number of freelance workers in total, outside of London:

City —- UK Freelancers in residence

• Manchester—- 5.7%
• Bristol—- 3.3%
• Birmingham—- 3.0%
• Leeds—- 2.6%
• Glasgow—- 2.3%
• Liverpool—- 2.0%
• Edinburgh—- 1.9%
• Brighton—- 1.8%
• Newcastle upon Tyne—- 1.6%
• Nottingham—- 1.6%

Hourly rates vary depending on the skill on offer. Web developers command an average of £42, PR experts earn an average of £39 per hour and designers £32 per hour. The most in demand freelancers are copywriters, administrators and web developers.

The following table shows the top ten fastest growing skills in the gig economy and the average hourly rate across the UK for each:

Skill —- Average hourly rate

• Copywriting—- £28
• Administration & Business Support—- £13
• Web Development—- £42
• Digital Marketing—- £29
• Design—- £32
• Social Media—- £17
• PR—- £39
• Translation—- £15
• Videography—- £27
• Photography—- £31

Thanks to the upsurge of high speed internet connections and contemporary forms of communication, one of the greatest benefits of freelance working is that it enables skilled professionals to carry out their work from almost anywhere.

Xenios Thrasyvoulou, founder and CEO of PeoplePerHour, comments: ‘One of the most interesting aspects of running PeoplePerHour is spotting the changing trends; the way that rates of pay change according to region, job type and demand. There is no question that the need for freelance workers has increased exponentially in the last ten years or so, and as more and more businesses switch on to the idea that hiring skilled professionals to complete specific, niche tasks on demand can save both time and money, it’s inevitable that freelance provision and value will grow.

‘I find it fascinating that the freelance pay scale is still fairly London-centric, but I suspect that that may be simply a matter of logistics. London currently homes more freelance workers per capita, as that is where the professionals were based when they embarked on their new career. As more people realise that remote working allows them to command London pay rates without the expense of living in the capital, it’s likely that there will be a dispersal of talent throughout the UK, redressing the earnings balance.’

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Xenios Thrasyvoulou .