Elance Online Work Index Reveals New Hiring Trends

Mountain View, Calif. (PRWEB) March 31, 2009

Elance, the leading site for online work, today released its April edition of the ''Elance Online Work Index,'' ranking the top skills businesses are seeking on the Web.

Based on data from more than 100,000 jobs posted on Elance over recent months, the Elance Online Work Index reveals that IT and marketing skills continue to be in high demand with businesses in search of specific expertise in open source technologies, computer programming, design, online marketing, social networking and writing. Top skills in demand include PHP, MySQL, HTML Graphic Design, Writing, AJAX, Adobe Illustrator, WordPress, Photoshop, Flash and Blogs. New data also show surging demand for social media skills and skills that deliver world-class web and application user experiences.

Notable hiring trends surfacing in April's Elance Online Work Index include:

• Open Source on the Rise: The overall trend of businesses migrating to open source technology solutions is stronger than ever with PHP (#1) programming now topping the Index followed closely by MySQL (#2). Demand grows for a variety of other open source skills including Joomla (#18), Drupal (#48 - up 10 spots), osCommerce (#49 - up 20 spots), Ruby on Rails (#73 - up 27 spots), and Linux (#74 - up 13 spots).
• User Experience Paramount: With more pressure than ever for companies to compete based on a world-class user experience, hiring trends show accelerating interest in technologies that deliver and enable great customer experiences, such as HTML (#3 - up 3 spots), Flash (#10 - up 2 spots), AJAX (#12 - up 14 spots), JAVA (#16 - up 13 spots), and - the biggest mover on the list - Actionscript (#56 - up 43 spots).
• Social Media Rising: Social media continues to gain mainstream traction with companies that want to connect with customers, drive traffic, and become part of the conversation with customers, partners and prospects. Demand for professionals skilled in developing for Facebook, Twitter and blogging applications is growing. WordPress (#15) and Blogs (#19) crack the top 20, while Social Networking (#38) moves up 6 spots, Facebook (#61) is up 10 spots and Twitter (#93) makes its debut on the Index.

The demand for online work is growing across a variety of skill sets as businesses face tighter budgets and growing workloads. Marketing and IT departments are hiring online as an alternative to hiring full-time. In March, companies posted nearly 25,000 new jobs on Elance, building on the 250,000 jobs and $100m worth of online work posted on Elance in the last 12 months.

Elance empowers independent professionals to demonstrate their real-world expertise while differentiating themselves in the online labor market by getting tested in any of the more than 250 skills tests offered for free on Elance. More than 13,000 skill tests were taken in March, with popular tests including PHP5, Adobe Photoshop CS3, Business Writing, XHTML 1.0, Search Engine Optimization, and HTML 4.01.

Elance Online Work Index - APRIL 2009
Rank - Skill - Change

1. PHP (+ 1)
2. MySQL (+ 1)
3. HTML (+ 3)
4. Graphic Design (- 3)
5. Article Writing (--)
6. CSS (+ 2)
7. Web Content (--)
8. Photoshop (+ 3)
9. Logo Design (- 5)
10. Flash (+ 2)
11. Illustrator (- 2)
12. AJAX (+ 14)
13. Data Entry (+ 8)
14. Search Engine Optimization (1)
15. WordPress (- 5)
16. Javascript (+ 13)
17. Online Writing (+ 5)
18. Joomla (+ 1)
19. Blogs (- 6)
20. Business Writing (+ 12)
21. Sales (+ 6)
22. Admin Assistant (- 8)
23. Lead Generation (- 7)
24. Research (- 1)
25. Advertising (+ 13)

To view the full Top 100 of the April edition of the Elance Online Work Index, visit the Elance Blog.

About Elance

Elance is the leading site for online work, where businesses connect with independent professionals to get work done.

On Elance, businesses find the experts they need plus the tools to manage online work from hiring to collaboration to making payment.

Elance offers companies flexibility, cost effectiveness and instant access to a vast pool of skilled and tested talent. Professionals use Elance to find work, deliver great results and get paid for doing what they do best.

The company is privately held and headquartered in Mountain View, California. For more information, visit Elance at http://www.elance.com .

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