Work-at-home jobs with sizzling demand

Looking for work-at-home jobs? Businesses adapting to a post-Covid world are pushing demand for some remote jobs into the stratosphere.

If you can draw potential buyers to Shopify stores, handle paid advertising on Amazon or Google, or design restaurant menus, for example, you don’t need to go into an office to find work. Demand for these hot work-at-home jobs is growing at double and triple-digit rates. That’s according to new research by Fiver, an international freelance platform, on millions of customer searches conducted over the past six months.

“At the beginning of Covid, a lot of businesses had to reinvent themselves by going from offline to online,” says Natasha Shine-Zirkel, business verticals group manager for Fiverr. “Now we are seeing all of these businesses trying to grow their online presence, while also gearing up their offline operations for the holidays.”

Hot work-at-home jobs

As a result, advertising, sales and marketing jobs are sizzling hot, says Shine-Zirkel. There’s been a 247% increase in companies looking for Shopify promotion experts, for example. Searches for people who can launch Facebook promotions have soared 174%.

There’s also continued demand for freelancers who can help companies go online and promote themselves there. Searches for front-end web developers, YouTube editors, social media experts, and smart phone app developers have also soared.

The fastest-growing remote work categories for U.S. freelancers involve trademarks, customer service and making real estate videos.

Trendsplaining

There’s almost always a hike in demand for customer service representatives prior to the holidays, says Kim Garstein, senior vice president of international staffing company Robert Half.

However, Covid plays an important role. Many home buyers are still uncomfortable touring homes in person, for example. Thus, realtors increasing offer “virtual” home tours.

And, while restaurants are largely open for in-person dining again, many shifted to digital menus. Of course, it’s tough to view a poster-sized menu on a 6-inch smart phone. So many restaurants are redesigning to improve the digital experience.

Meanwhile, demand for remote accountants, administrators, tech experts, writers, human resource managers, experts in health care, project management and education is also strong, according to FlexJobs, a curated job board for remote work. Demographic trends, explain part of this. After all, the massive Baby Boom generation has largely hit retirement age.

But the pandemic, which closed schools and left parents scrambling for child care, made the labor shortage worse. And many schools still regularly test children for Covid and shut down at the first sign of infection. As a result, some families with young children have opted to at least temporarily forego two full-time incomes. One parent scales back to part-time or contract work to address the still unsettled nature of public education.

Where to find jobs

As always, the best places to find work depend on what you want to do.

If you’re looking for remote project work, Fiverr is a good choice. The site supports 500 job categories, such as social media management, website development, and digital marketing. Freelancers set their own rates here. But prices are generally calculated by the project not the hour. As a result, it’s imperative to be specific about what is and is not included in the listed package.

If you’re doing website development, for example, you might offer a 3-page site for $150; a 5-page site for $250 and a 10-page site for $500. You can — and should — specify whether animations and interactive elements are included or extra.