Team Blitz India
With an average monthly compensation of $10,000 (Dh36,700), freelancer registrations on a talent-on-demand platform have seen a massive increase of 122 per cent in 2023 compared to the previous year.
An executive from Outsized said the average day rates for professionals in the UAE are influenced by factors such as years of experience, project duration, and the specific skills required. “According to data from our platform, for talent with 7-10 years of experience, when engaged in a 12-month project, the … average day rate is approximately $400-500 (up to Dh1,800),” Azeem Zainulbhai, co-founder and chief product officer at Outsized, told Khaleej Times.
This is significantly higher than the average day rates for Mena professionals, which stand at $309 (Dh1,100).
Azeem said the Mena region has some of the fastest-growing freelance economies in the world. The UAE’s on-demand talent pool averages 11-12 years of expertise. This is higher than the Mena region’s average of 10.1 years — which is already the highest average expertise, outperforming the larger Apac and Africa regions.
The executive credited the massive surge in registrations to the UAE’s diverse visa operations, tech adoption across sectors and freelancer-friendly policies According to the company’s Talent On Demand 2024 report, that’s based on data collected from its platform, the Mena region is seeing a “remarkable increase in freelance talent demand, diverging from the global downturn seen in the US and Europe”. This spans sectors such as IT, banking, finance, real estate, construction, energy, and hospitality. In the UAE, there is a “burgeoning demand for skilled professionals in technology, project management, business transformation, cybersecurity and other key areas”, according to Azeem.
