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== Conclusion == | == Conclusion == | ||
According to Upwork's Chief Economist Adam Ozimek, “One-third of U.S. freelancers on Upwork earn at least $50/hour, which would put them in the top 10% of U.S. wage earners overall.”<ref>https://www.cnbc.com/2019/08/21/high-paying-jobs-for-independent-freelance-workers.html#:~:text=%E2%80%9COne%2Dthird%20of%20U.S.%20freelancers,from%20January%20to%20June%202019</ref> That means during layoffs at least one-third of Upwork's U.S freelancers stand a higher chance of being affected by the layoffs. Clients will likely replace them with freelancers from less developed economies. Luckily, as found out above, high quality freelancers are not concentrated only in U.S. This implies that freelancers from other regions have the potential to take up the work handle by U.S freelancers. The reason for the deviation in the searchable number of high quality freelancers and that given by Upwork<ref>https://www.investmentwiki.org/wiki/Upwork:_Analysis_of_Quality_of_Freelancers#:~:text=That%20would%20be%20around%201%2C200%2C000.</ref> is because the company restricted the searchable limit in each category to 5,000 freelancers on the day of our study. Our study found out that the searchable limit differs each day and Upwork has never disclosed how its search algorithm work<ref name=":0" />. However, by examining the searchable limit in a | According to Upwork's Chief Economist Adam Ozimek, “One-third of U.S. freelancers on Upwork earn at least $50/hour, which would put them in the top 10% of U.S. wage earners overall.”<ref>https://www.cnbc.com/2019/08/21/high-paying-jobs-for-independent-freelance-workers.html#:~:text=%E2%80%9COne%2Dthird%20of%20U.S.%20freelancers,from%20January%20to%20June%202019</ref> That means during layoffs at least one-third of Upwork's U.S freelancers stand a higher chance of being affected by the layoffs. Clients will likely replace them with freelancers from less developed economies. Luckily, as found out above, high quality freelancers are not concentrated only in U.S. This implies that freelancers from other regions have the potential to take up the work handle by U.S freelancers. The reason for the deviation in the searchable number of high quality freelancers and that given by Upwork<ref>https://www.investmentwiki.org/wiki/Upwork:_Analysis_of_Quality_of_Freelancers#:~:text=That%20would%20be%20around%201%2C200%2C000.</ref> is because the company restricted the searchable limit in each category to 5,000 freelancers on the day of our study. Our study found out that the searchable limit differs each day and Upwork has never disclosed how its search algorithm work<ref name=":0" />. However, by examining the searchable limit in a three day period, we concluded that it lies between 5,000-1,000 freelancers. Upwork restricts the searchable number of freelancers in order to give each freelancer(no matter the quality) a chance to appear in the search results and get hired<ref name=":0">https://community.upwork.com/t5/Support-Forum/About-not-related-search-results/m-p/1120823 | ||
https://community.upwork.com/t5/Freelancers/Algorithm-how-Upwork-sorts-Freelancers/m-p/135262</ref>. There are also other factors that can make a freelancer profile not to appear in the search results. These include<ref>https://community.upwork.com/t5/Support-Forum/About-not-related-search-results/m-p/1120823↵↵https://community.upwork.com/t5/Freelancers/Algorithm-how-Upwork-sorts-Freelancers/m-p/135262</ref>; | https://community.upwork.com/t5/Freelancers/Algorithm-how-Upwork-sorts-Freelancers/m-p/135262</ref>. There are also other factors that can make a freelancer profile not to appear in the search results. These include<ref>https://community.upwork.com/t5/Support-Forum/About-not-related-search-results/m-p/1120823↵↵https://community.upwork.com/t5/Freelancers/Algorithm-how-Upwork-sorts-Freelancers/m-p/135262</ref>; | ||
* The profile is set to private by its owner. | *The profile is set to private by its owner. | ||
* Freelancer skills, experience, and platform ratings. | *Freelancer skills, experience, and platform ratings. | ||
* Upwork rotates the freelancers that appear in the search results every now and then. As such, your freelancer profile can appear in the search results today and fail to appear tommorow.<ref>https://community.upwork.com/t5/Support-Forum/About-not-related-search-results/m-p/1120823↵↵https://community.upwork.com/t5/Freelancers/Algorithm-how-Upwork-sorts-Freelancers/m-p/135262</ref>. | * Upwork rotates the freelancers that appear in the search results every now and then. As such, your freelancer profile can appear in the search results today and fail to appear tommorow.<ref>https://community.upwork.com/t5/Support-Forum/About-not-related-search-results/m-p/1120823↵↵https://community.upwork.com/t5/Freelancers/Algorithm-how-Upwork-sorts-Freelancers/m-p/135262</ref>. | ||
* Market dynamics play a role in determining the number of searchable freelancers<ref>https://community.upwork.com/t5/Support-Forum/About-not-related-search-results/m-p/1120823↵↵https://community.upwork.com/t5/Freelancers/Algorithm-how-Upwork-sorts-Freelancers/m-p/135262</ref>. In this case, we believe that job categories that have higher job posts will have a higher searchable limit. | *Market dynamics play a role in determining the number of searchable freelancers<ref>https://community.upwork.com/t5/Support-Forum/About-not-related-search-results/m-p/1120823↵↵https://community.upwork.com/t5/Freelancers/Algorithm-how-Upwork-sorts-Freelancers/m-p/135262</ref>. In this case, we believe that job categories that have higher job posts will have a higher searchable limit. | ||
It's probably a good move for Upwork to restrict the number of searchable high quality freelancers to around 100k as this ensures the platform's quality continue to grows i.e those freelancers who are starting out get a chance to be hired and build a reputation. However, this policy reduces the supply of high quality freelancers. Therefore, since at the moment, the supply of jobs exceed the supply of high quality freelancers, some clients may end up hiring freelancers with no reputation at all. If these freelancers screw up, clients might be discouraged to keep hiring in the platform. | It's probably a good move for Upwork to restrict the number of searchable high quality freelancers to around 100k as this ensures the platform's quality continue to grows i.e those freelancers who are starting out get a chance to be hired and build a reputation. However, this policy reduces the supply of high quality freelancers. Therefore, since at the moment, the supply of jobs exceed the supply of high quality freelancers, some clients may end up hiring freelancers with no reputation at all. If these freelancers screw up, clients might be discouraged to keep hiring in the platform. | ||