新冠疫情刺激自由職業發展

The coronavirus pandemic has wreaked havoc on the global jobs market, leaving many unemployed, furloughed or working reduced hours as employers implemented sweeping cost-cutting measures.

新冠疫情已經對全球就業市場造成了嚴重破壞，僱主們實施大規模降低成本的措施，導致許多人被解僱、臨時停職或減少工作時間。

Yet, one workforce that has weathered the storm better than most is the freelance market. That segment of the workforce has seen a surge in demand — even as full-time work has collapsed, according to a new report from online freelance market place Freelancer.

然而，有一支勞動力隊伍在一片頹勢中逆勢上揚，那就是自由職業者。根據在線自由職業市場Freelancer網站的一份新報告，就在全職工作衰減的同時，自由職業勞動力的需求卻見漲。

Freelance job openings increased over 25% during the April to June quarter of 2020 — compared to the first three months of the year, Freelancer's report found. The quarterly study tracks movements from the top 50 fastest growing and declining jobs on the site's global marketplace which spans North America, Europe and Asia.

Freelancer的報告發現，2020年第二季度，自由職業的工作機會相比第一季度增加了超25%。這項季度調查追蹤了該網站跨越北美、歐洲和亞洲的全球市場中增長和衰減最快的50種職業。

The uptick reflects a shift in the post-Covid-19 global jobs landscape, as employers reevaluate budgets and opt for a more flexible workforce. But it also indicates a growing interest among employees to move toward independent work, Freelancer's CEO Matt Barrie told CNBC.

Freelancer 的首席執行官馬特·巴里告訴CNBC說，隨着僱主們重新評估預算和選擇更靈活的勞動力，自由職業崗位的增加反映出後疫情時代全球就業格局的變化，但也顯示出就業人員對於向獨立工作模式轉變的興趣日增。

"While Covid-19 has been the trigger of the already upward trending freelancer movement, this exponential growth can also be attributed to the strong demand for individuals to finally start their own freelance enterprise, work on their own terms and supplement their income," said Barrie.

巴里說：“儘管新冠疫情刺激了本就在上升階段的自由職業發展，這種快速增長也可以歸因於個人終於開始了自己的自由職業生涯、按照自己的意願工作和貼補收入的強烈需求。”

Freelance job postings rose 41% to 605,000 in the second quarter of 2020 compared to the same period in 2019, according to the report.

這份報告指出，2020年第二季度自由職業的崗位相比2019年同期增加了41%，達到了60.5萬個。

Meanwhile, last week the United Nations' International Labour Organization estimated that the number of working hours lost in the second quarter this year could be the equivalent of 400 million full-time jobs.

與此同時，上週聯合國國際勞工組織估計，今年第二季度損失的勞動時間相當於4億份全職工作。

"I do foresee that this crisis will extend well into 2021, and there will be a permanent step-change in both working from home and the use of freelancers by businesses," Barrie added.

巴里補充道：“我預見這次危機將持續到2021年，而且在居家辦公和企業僱傭自由職業者這兩方面都會有永久性的徹底改變。”

The jobs that saw the greatest surge in demand from employers in the second quarter tended to be those directly connected to the pandemic, according to the report.

根據該報告，第二季度僱主需求量增長最大的崗位通常是和疫情直接相關的那些工作。

Jobs related to mathematical modeling — including mathematics, Matlab and algorithm projects — saw the greatest increase over the quarter, as they surged 99.6% to 16,501 jobs. Statistics and statistical analysis positions also saw a major uptick, rising 75% to 7,397 jobs.

和數學建模相關的崗位——包括數學、數字圖像處理和算法項目——在這一季度迎來了最大增長，飆升了99.6%，達到了16501個。統計和統計分析崗位也出現了較大增長，增加了75%，達到了7397個。

Much of that demand came from health-care institutions, governments, businesses and media organizations, which increasingly require number crunchers to "interpret, analyze and report" data on cases, hospitalizations, mortality rates, testing, as well as the impact of the pandemic, the report noted.

報告指出，這些崗位的許多需求來自醫療機構、政府、企業和媒體組織，他們越來越多地需要統計人員們“解讀、分析和報告”關於病例、住院、死亡率、檢測和疫情影響的數據。

Elsewhere, near-global lockdowns sparked demand for home entertainment and online shopping and, consequently, workers with applicable skills. Demand for game designers and game developers surged 68% and 64% respectively in the second quarter, while job postings for e-commerce professionals rose 54.4%.

另一方面，全球各地近乎普遍封鎖的情況激發了人們對家庭娛樂和網上購物以及有相關應用能力的勞動人員的需求。第二季度，遊戲設計師和遊戲開發者的需求量分別上升了68%和64%，而電商專業人士的崗位則增加了54.4%。

At the other end of the spectrum, listings for face-to-face jobs unsurprisingly saw the biggest declines over the period, dropping 35.6%.

與此相對，這一期間面對面工作的崗位毫不意外地出現了最大降幅，減少了35.6%。