Tracker

Demand Tracker of IT projects for freelancers, France

Last update: 2023-08-27

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Am I the only freelancer suffering from a decreasing demand?

Are you no longer receiving propositions as frequently as before? Is the client’s sole focus securing the lowest rate possible? Are projects now shorter in duration? And what about remote job offers? Have they decreased even more compared to pre-pandemic times?

Can we blame intermediaries for this situation? Is the market overcrowded with individuals leaving their jobs and taking advantage of “chômage”?

The goal of this page is to provide you with an overview of the demand for IT freelancers in France. It may not fully reflect the market, as it is based on the information we could gather from various sources. Now, let’s examine the extent of the damage, who is affected, and what the current demand looks like.

Perimeter

Date: From May 2023

Projects: 15 746 job offers for freelancers in IT / Tech / Data

Summer time

Okey, apparently they deleted the jobs posted in end of July and start of August to republish them again last week. Which explains the dip. I will investigate. If my theory is true, then it’s a fake upturn.

And the rates?

Since we don’t have data before May 2023 and usually rates’ evolutions can be observed on the yearly level, we can’t conclude that much on the rates. But we actualized the chart with the latest data. And it’s stable… Except, the max rates that are declining and are low. Seems like no one is willing to pay for expertise. Is it due to a higher competition?

Who do they want?

The demand does not seem to have high fluctuations when it comes to the experience wanted for the projects. Same proportions, with the demand clearly in the advantage of the 5-10 years of experience. You gain between 18% and 32% increase when you go from super junior to super senior in a decade, which is pretty low when compared to the salary increase in permanent positions.

Where do they want them?

Freelancing is still very centralized around Paris and its region,- 58% of the projects of last week were located in Paris and Île-de-France. Overall, the share of projects in Paris and its region has been increasing during the last weeks and Paris never sleeps during summer? So if there is an upturn, then it will definitely happen in Paris

On average, only 5% of the projects can be done full remote. But wait what? It definitely decreased in July and mid-August, and after the previous week increase in remote jobs, it’s back to 5%ish. Last week I asked if French recruiters were finally listening to the candidates? The answer is no :(

ASAP?

Every time a broker calls me for a project, the start date is “ASAP”. Well, of course the idea is to create a sense of urgency. I wanted to see if they do the same when they post a position. 77% of the projects posted are for ASAP!

The proportion of ASAP projects decreased during summer as they can’t fool us with a fake start in mid-August:

Backlog of analysis

That’s all for today :) Next steps:

• Update the data every week
• Do some NLP on the job descriptions and titles to identify the most popular technologies and positions and their evolution (I know this one has been in the to do for long now)
• Maybe add other geographies PS: there are some exclusive analysis posted on the telegram channel

If you have any comments or ideas, send me an e-mail