Upwork Monthly Hiring Insights

Key Insights: May 2026

+42%
Game Design & Development demand increased month-over-month
+70%
Translation & Localization Services grew month-over-month among high-value contracts, pointing to stronger demand for globally oriented work and the importance of humans in the loop — where nuance, cultural context, and tone still require a human eye.
+72%
Civil & Structural Engineering demand among SMBs increased year-over-year, suggesting sustained demand for specialized technical expertise.
Top 10 in-demand AI-enabled skills
1. Python
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2. Video editing
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3. Graphic design
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4. ChatGPT
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5. AI-generated video
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6. Data entry
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7. Virtual admin assistance
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8. Machine learning
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9. Web design
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10. Adobe Photoshop
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Production-oriented and specialized technical work led hiring in May: Game Design & Development grew +42% MoM, while Desktop Application Development rebounded +26% MoM, and Contract Manufacturing rose +14% MoM.
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SMB hiring was concentrated in creative production, data preparation, and engineering: Audio & Music Production saw the strongest SMB hiring signal as high as 137% MoM in May, while Data Extraction/ETL (extract, transform, load, i.e. a data integration process that combines, cleans and organizes data from multiple sources into a single, consistent dataset), grew +16% MoM and Civil & Structural Engineering rose +9% MoM.
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High-value contract growth clustered around localization, market research, and engineering: Translation & Localization Services rose +70% MoM, Market Research & Product Reviews increased +38% MoM, and Civil & Structural Engineering grew +14% MoM. May’s translation growth was especially driven by work requiring humans in the loop, such as machine translation post-editing, long-form documents translation, and SaaS/app localization.

May’s skills data points to growing demand for faster visual and technical asset production: Computer-Aided Design (CAD) grew +2.6% MoM, and AI-Generated Video grew +2.4% MoM. Advisory and specialized business services saw strong momentum: Personal & Professional Coaching led overall category growth at +48% MoM, while Corporate & Contract Law grew +24% MoM among SMBs, pointing to continued demand for expert guidance and operational support.
“AI is changing how work gets done, but May’s data shows where human expertise and judgment remain essential. Translation & Localization Services grew 70% month over month among high-value contracts, led by work that requires nuance, cultural context, tone, and editorial precision. This is not a coincidence: as AI becomes more embedded in workflows, specialized human talent is becoming more valuable in the moments where quality, context, and trust matter most.”
Jennifer Brett
Managing Director, Upwork Research Institute

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Methodology and Sources

Upwork Marketplace data reflects month-over-month (MoM) changes based on new contract activity in the U.S. from May 1-31, 2026, compared to April 1-30, 2026. Year-over-year (YoY) comparisons reflect changes in new contract activity compared to the same period in the prior year. High-value work is defined as contracts of at least $1,000. For purposes of this analysis, small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) are defined as businesses with 10 to 499 employees, based on Upwork’s internal client size grouping. Client size data are based on self-reported and/or estimated information and may be subject to revision.  Top skills are identified by how frequently they appear in job posts as a share of total posts, after grouping similar skill names using text embedding-based clustering. Fastest-growing skills are identified by growth in both relative share and contract count. We first measure each skill’s change in share of the overall skill/job-post mix to identify skills becoming more important within the market. We then check whether the underlying contract count also increased month-over-month, so the highlighted skills reflect both rising prominence and absolute demand growth.