REDWOOD CITY, Calif.—October 13, 2011 — The recent recession has made it critical for American businesses to maintain high levels of productivity, and--according to oDesk’s monthly Online Employment Report--employers are achieving a competitive edge by leveraging online work. In order to respond to fluctuating demand, companies are using online staff to adapt and scale their workforce in real-time, with limited budgets and resources.
Despite persistent full-time unemployment numbers, businesses in America rank among the most productive and efficient on the planet. In fact, regardless of the recession, United States productivity actually grew more than four percent in 2010, according to an International Labor Office report [1]. Furthermore, a separate survey by Motley Fool found that 90 percent of the most efficient companies on the planet are headquartered in America [2]. So why does business productivity rank high even when traditional unemployment suffers?
“Maintaining high productivity means hiring the right talent at the right time,” said Jonathan Swanson, Co-Founder of Thumbtack, a San Francisco, Calif.-based professional services company. “oDesk gives us easy access to an enormous pool of skilled workers, so we can find the specialists we need, when we need them. In September, we hired a new full-time online worker every 48 hours. With real-time access to specialized talent, we can scale as the market demands.”
According to oDesk’s Online Employment Report, a growing number of businesses in the U.S. and abroad are harnessing online work to find the exact workers they need—and stay productive. Specifically, highlights from this month’s report include:
- Employers spent $21 million on online work in September through the oDesk platform (up 92% from 2010), and posted nearly 100,000 new jobs
- Workers, meanwhile, performed over 2 million hours of work (an increase of 88% over 2010)
- This month, the three top skills in demand were Web programming, Web design, and blog and article writing
“Today’s companies to be more productive than ever,” said oDesk CEO Gary Swart. “Because of the on-demand workforce available through our platform, businesses have the flexibility they need to adapt to changing market conditions—and stay productive in even the most challenging economy.”
For more information on the current trends in online work, please visit the oDesk September Online Employment Report.
About oDesk
With more than 1.4 million contractors in over 150 countries, oDesk (www.oDesk.com) is the global employment platform that enables employers to hire, manage, and pay a flexible online workforce.
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MEDIA CONTACTS:
Sammy Totah
BOCA Communications
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[1] The International Labor Office, “Global Employment Trends 2011.” http://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/@dgreports/@dcomm/@publ/documents/publication/wcms_150440.pdf
[2] The Motley Fool, “10 of the Most Efficient Companies on the Planet,” September 1, 2009. http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2009/01/09/10-of-the-most-efficient-companies-on-the-planet.aspx
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