Digital trace analysis of occupational concentration and adjustment in online freelance markets

Online freelance marketplaces arrange remote transactions of freelance services between freelancers and individual or organisational clients. Traces of freelance activity are observable digital records of platform infrastructures, such as project-posting records and country-occupation worker profile indicators. This study maps online freelance worker-profile activity by month and occupation using monthly aggregated OLI trace data. The analysis also presents occupational structure and overall patterns of change over time. Using model estimates, this analysis assesses changes in occupational adjustment since 2022. The results indicate a fast growth trajectory in recorded worker-profile activity until 2020, followed by a high yet variable period in 2021–2022 and stabilisation from 2023 onwards. In the post-2022 period, the worker-profile values for AI-exposed occupations appear lower than those for less-exposed occupations. There is evidence of different occupational mixes at the country level, but not of clear cross-national segmentation. These findings indicate that digital trace data may be used to identify occupational concentration and shifts in worker-profile values and reflect differences in exposure to volatility.