There is high demand for young freelancers

Although some people would think that this pandemic, which affected the global structure of jobs, would be an opportunity for some sectors, the reality seems to be quite different. According to what the specialized website for SMEs and Self-Employed mentions, young people “no longer want to be autonomous”.

This is because almost half of workers under 30 years of age were lost in the past 13 years, although this figure appears to be increasing since the pandemic began, where many people decided to have an “extra” alternative to their usual income for a much more independent route.

This is a trend that goes against the needs of the market, because, for example, we see that the Impulso Baires website highlights that the demand for freelance professionals in Argentina grew by 40%, being a trend that continues in Latin America. Let's see, then, what is the situation of young people who seek to take their first steps.

Do young people no longer want to be autonomous?

We had seen it with a publication of Cinco Días, which mentions that those under 30 years of age "have self-employment as the last option ." It is hardly considered an alternative for job placement and professional development, because, sometimes, they do not know very well where to start.

The problem is that, as reported by MSN, young people are the ones who lost the most jobs due to COVID-19. In other words, these groups of workers are the ones with the least experience and tend to cover a much lower salary, in such a way that, in cases where companies decided to cut back, they were the main affected figures.

At the same time, they have a very important dilemma that everyone has ever heard. Paradoxically, almost any job requires that you have experience, which is why you cannot have it until you have worked somewhere. This makes it impossible for young people to enter the labor market quickly … or at least from the conventional perspective.

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The chance to gain experience, even in well-paid or professionally and academically qualified work areas is given through self-employment. The Diario Norte website mentions that, due to the pandemic, many young people were left in a situation where they "neither study nor work." What if they could do something different?

From El Independiente they also report that young people "no longer want to be autonomous", because they aspire to have a first job in a dependent relationship that then allows them to undertake a project alone. However, they never seem to think the other way around, that is: start freelancing to gain experience in an easier way, without the need to be hired, and then be able to access a "formal" job. 

At the same time, Latin America is in need of a wide variety of autonomous positions, mainly associated with digital technologies in the midst of the pandemic. According to the survey carried out by the BBC, programming, development, and creation of websites is what is offered the most, although graphic design personnel or social media management, for example, is also highly requested. 

Another point where more specialized personnel is being requested is in the eCommerce area. According to what the ADS Murai website mentions, online shopping in Latin America is having an excellent moment. For example, in Colombia 87% of people between 15 and 75 years old have bought online at some time, demonstrating that people are needed who can remotely work these platforms.

This goes hand in hand with what the iProfesional website mentions, which says that the hiring of freelancers "will be one of the first places where companies look for talent." This specifically refers to the possible labor insertion of young people who, despite this demand, seem to be heading in the opposite direction.

Young Latin Americans have the opportunity to begin to harness the transformative potential of the digital world to help companies position themselves in the world of sales, as was the case in the world of electronic commerce. Faced with the difficulty of starting a formal job due to no experience, taking the first steps independently may be the solution to begin to better fit into the job market.