Freelance marketplace Upwork has long been documenting the most popular skills and specialties on its website. Among those that made the list this year are data analytics, social media marketing and accounting, according to its Most In-Demand Work Skills in 2024 report.

These are the tasks, or groups of tasks, that were "more in demand year over year versus less in demand and what was up and coming," says Margaret Lilani, vice president of talent delivery at the company.

Upwork groups its popular skills according to field, such as coding and sales. This year, it also included a list of its most in-demand customer service and admin support tasks, some of which don't necessarily require much experience.

Here are its top five in the category.

General virtual assistant

"Imagine how much better the life of everyone you know would be if they had a virtual assistant to do their calendar, to help out with email, to spruce up some presentations," says Lilani. That's the sort of admin work general virtual assistants pick up and why they're so in demand.

"And they can do it for multiple clients," says Vicki Salemi, career expert at Monster.  

Their work can truly vary and some can specialize in tools like Microsoft Copilot or tasks like social media. "But the generalist nature also allows them to be nimble," if that's the route you're interested in, says Lilani.

You do not necessarily need a bachelor's degree to become a virtual assistant, but it doesn't hurt to have one.

General virtual assistants charge as much as $65 per hour on Upwork.

Data entry

This skill is all about inputting information into programs like Microsoft Excel or updating existing records. It can be tedious but it's necessary for all kinds of business functions, from customer tracking systems to applicant tracking systems.

"It's a skill that's not going away," says Lilani. "We have to get the information into the right places, and we have to get it in there correctly."

Many employers only require a high school diploma.

Data entry specialists charge as much as $100 per hour on Upwork.

Digital project management

If a company wants to roll out a new branding campaign or redo their website, they'll often hire a digital project manager for that.

"That project manager is going to keep that digital project on track," says Lilani. They'll design the scope, manage deadlines, "they're going to deliver on time and they're going to deliver at the quality that they promised to their clients," she says. The role encompasses many administrative tasks, hence its categorization under admin and customer service.

Many of these roles will require a bachelor's degree and some work experience.

Digital project managers charge as much as $200 per hour.

General research services

Research comes in handy in solving a myriad of business problems. It's "a critical component when we're discovering customer problems and deciding what to build next," for example, says Lilani.

But it requires work. "There's so much information," she says. "You have to wade through it, you have to get to the right pieces of it and then you have to synthesize and derive insights from that." That's where researchers come in. They find that information, sift through it and help businesses reach conclusions to solve their problems.

They can be generalists or experts in a particular field. Many employers will require a bachelor's and some experience. Some may even require a master's degree or a doctorate.

Researchers charge as much as $175 per hour.

Dropshipping and order processing

Dropshipping is an online retail process in which the seller of the items does not store the items themself but instead outsources the storage and shipping to another supplier. The seller's responsible for maintaining their store, marketing it, etc.

Dropshipping experts help sellers with various components of running their online store such as their website design, the SEO writing that ensures it gets noticed, the accounting and their product descriptions. Since the pandemic, e-commerce is an "area that continues to grow," says Salemi.

Dropshippers on Upwork charge as much as $250 per hour.

Even as you get hired for these or other tasks, "one of the most important things is to consistently take an internal audit of your own skills," says Salemi, "and think about where am I with my current skills? How can I hone what I currently have? And what do I need to upskill in?"

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