The availability of freelance work was brighter than average between early 2012 and 2013 for IT specialists with skills in the Windows Azure cloud platform, marketers with proficiency in Twitter and creative professionals who write and edit, according to freelance platform Elance’s ‘Global Online Employment Report — Q1 2013’.

Demand for Windows Azure skills globally skyrocketed by 248% year-on-year between the first quarter of 2012 and 2013. At the same time, tweeting marketers found demand for their services leap by a similar increase, at 235%. At an increase of 104%, freelancers with writing and editing skills also found rising need around the world for their services. 

Those skills experienced the highest year-on-year growth in Elance’s Q1 survey. Other fields that saw increased demand for freelancers included STEM [science, technology, engineering and mathematics], which rose by 153% year on year, virtual assistants (85%), infographics (81%) online research (78%), Android skills (71%) and legal research (68%).

The report pinpointed greater opportunities globally for freelancers providing admin support. “Today’s admins use cloud productivity tools in addition to mastering traditional skills like researching data, creating presentations, writing supplier letters, culling social media content, responding to emails and managing calendars for their clients,” the report said. 

Elance’s vice president for Europe, Kjetil Olsen, recently told Recruiter that lawyers, architects and engineers are entering the global marketplace of freelance work in dramatically rising numbers. At the same time, freelance opportunities for those professions are also rising, Olsen said. (See ‘Freelance working gets hot under the white collar, says Elance’, 23 May, recruiter.co.uk.)

In Q1, 300,000 freelance jobs were posted on Elance, with 290,000 freelancers signing up. The Elance freelance corps’ Q1 earnings were US $60m (£39m).