New Opportunities For Filipino Freelancers Growing Rapidly, But…

Navigating risks and tolerating financial instability are some of the challenges regularly confronting many members of the online gig economy.

This is according to Ria del Rio, 28, who has been working as a freelance virtual assistant and video editor for clients based in the United States. She entered the freelance market at the encouragement of her friend and has been learning the ropes of the industry on her own for nearly a year now.

“’Nung una mahirap kasi, ‘yun nga, first time ko sa ganitong industry so may mga bagay akong hindi alam (At first, it was challenging because it is my first time in this kind of industry, so there were a lot of things that I did not know),” Del Rio shared in a virtual interview with The Philippine STAR / One News.PH last Monday (Oct. 3).

“Wala (akong) masyadong mapagtanungan, so sariling sikap sa pag-research kung paano gawin ang mga bagay-bagay. Pero ang positive side naman ‘non ay may nadadagdag sa mga nalalaman ko (I could not ask anyone, so I had to do my own research on how to perform certain tasks. But, on the positive side, I learned a lot),” the newbie freelancer added.

Despite the challenges, Del Rio finds herself among the many Filipinos who are fortunate enough to thrive in a highly competitive freelance industry, which has been on the upswing and would likely stay that way, according to American financial services provider Payoneer.

In its 2019 Global Gig Economy Index released last August, Payoneer said the Philippines ranks sixth among countries with the fastest-growing market for freelancers. These types of self-employed individuals also enjoyed a 35-percent increase in their earnings over the last couple of years.

The company added that the freelancing market could potentially be “very lucrative” in the Philippines, if the US dollar keeps rising, but this is the kind of news that Del Rio would rather take with a sense of cautious optimism.

Payoneer regional vice president for Southeast Asia Miguel Warren said outsourced jobs could be a “tailwind” for Filipinos, as freelancers with both local and international clients can now earn up to $22 or almost P1,300 per hour, depending on what they do.

“That (stronger USD) definitely is a strong motivation (for people) to be able to not only get into freelancing, but to succeed and flourish in this field,” Warren told “BusinessWorld Live” on One News last Sept. 22.

As of Tuesday morning, Oct. 4, the Philippine peso is valued at P58.89 against the US dollar and is projected to hit an all-time low after the US Federal Reserve decided to impose higher interest rates to stamp out skyrocketing inflation.

Del Rio is earning $6.00 per hour in her freelance gigs. And while the US dollars keeps gathering steam against the weakening local currency, she could not find a lot of reasons to celebrate just yet because of the rising costs of fuel, affecting the prices of consumer goods.

“Masarap sa feeling na ang taas ng sahod ko, compared sa sahod ko before, kaya (lang) parang hindi ako naaapektuhan since hindi rin naman ako masyadong lumalabas din ng bahay (It feels great that my pay has increased, compared to what it was before, but I don't think it is affecting [my lifestyle] that much since I mostly stay at home),” she noted.

What compounds the problem for other freelancers, according to Del Rio, is that some clients do not pay on time. Sometimes the delay could take up to two weeks, she said, making it difficult for those who are relying on that income alone to pay off their household bills.

“So sana magkaroon ng way para ma-improve (‘yung sitwasyon) na hindi na-de-delay ‘yung sahod ng mga freelancer (So I hope there is a way for the situation to improve where the salary of the freelancers doesn’t get delayed),” Del Rio underscored.

Recently, four lawmakers have filed a bill in the House of Representatives seeking to protect the rights of freelance workers, as their number – estimated between 1.5 million to two million – are expected to grow exponentially amid the country’s ongoing transition to a digital economy.

Davao City Rep. Paolo Duterte, Benguet Rep. Eric Yap as well as ACT-CIS party-list representatives Edvic Yap and Jeffrey Soriano co-authored House Bill No. 3738 to push this proposal forward in the 19 th Congress.

In the Senate, its draft counterpart was filed and is being sponsored by incumbent majority floor leader Sen. Joel Villanueva under Senate Bill No. 136 otherwise known as the Freelancers Protection Act. It is currently pending at the committee level.

The proposed measure aims to make written contracts mandatory in obtaining the services of freelancers, along with providing them with night differential and hazard pay when applicable, among other policy directions, according to the lawmakers.

Del Rio said this bill aimed at protecting their rights and occupational welfare is a most welcome development, if not, long overdue.

Del Rio expressed hope that this bill would become a law for the benefit of all freelancers, who always run the risk of getting unemployed without warning, as soon as the client decides to unilaterally end their business relationship.

“Sana rin magkaroon ng written contract ang mga client na ‘wag biglaan ‘yung pagbitaw nila sa mga virtual assistant nila (I hope the clients could be bound by written contracts in which they don’t drop their virtual assistants all of a sudden),” she appealed.

“Kasi minsan ‘yung work nila na ‘yon, ‘yun lang talaga ‘yung current work nila and kung biglaan ‘yung pagtanggal sa kanila, biglaan din ma-cut ‘yung mga panggastos nila sa araw-araw (Because sometimes that work is the only job that they [freelancers] currently have, and if they suddenly get terminated, the [pay] that sustains their daily expenses would be cut as well),” Del Rio said.

She also mentioned that Americans, or other nationalities that outsource particular jobs for that matter, prefer hiring Filipino freelancers because of the cheap labor rates. However, most freelancers do operate at night or are following foreign business hours, which is not good for the health.

A study titled “The Philippines Freelance Market 2022 Report,” conducted by Payoneer and mobile wallet GCash, showed that the gig economy continues to grow rapidly nationwide and new opportunities for freelancers to earn are emerging.

The research found that traditional freelancing jobs – individuals who bid on a client’s job posting to acquire work – are still prevalent, but social media has given rise to new types of freelancers, which are content creators. About 5,560 respondents participated in the survey.

According to Warren, they are seeing “great trends” of gig jobs and freelance work arising in the country largely because of the customer service orientation and the English language skills of Filipinos.

Warren said this can be attributed to the sustained growth of the business process outsourcing (BPO) industry in the country. “We're essentially freelancers providing online outsourcing services and we continue to see that growing in the future as freelancers actually start to grow bigger,” he noted.

“They are becoming SMEs (small and medium enterprises). They are investing in infrastructure, hiring others, even becoming businesses,” Warren said. He pointed out that Filipino freelancers are in-demand for visual assistant services, customer support, writing, information technology and mobile programming.

The Payoneer official said that there is also a “gradual escalation” in the emerging sectors in freelancing like content creation – they can be bloggers, vloggers as well as those who create contents on TikTok and Kumu for a wider audience.

Warren described the freelancing industry as “very diverse” and “is starting to revolve” around the workforce as it used to be that “kind of lower value services” in the past. But now, he said, “the spectrum has really increased” where even those with high value and specialist skills are being called upon by international companies to provide services on demand.

He added that they are also seeing a branching out of services in the global arena as there is an increase in Filipino freelancers, who are serving clients from Australia and in other countries in Southeast Asia.

“In the Philippines, we serve a lot of small businesses and emerging businesses in the US and in Europe,” Warren said. “But increasingly, we're also seeing a lot of clients that have customers in Australia and also increasingly in Southeast Asia,” he added.

As the pandemic accelerated digitalization, Warren pointed out that it also changed the mindset of many global firms that “are now much more open to distributed, remote, and global workforce.” He emphasized that it is a positive trend for Filipinos because “it helps us [to] be able to promote our own skills at the global stage.”

The Payoneer representative also mentioned that many Filipinos are now taking freelancing work to the next level – far from what it was perceived before as just purely gig work or short-term job opportunities.

Warren cited global marketplace platforms Upwork, Fiverr, Facebook, Linked In and other employment-oriented online websites as potential sources of jobs and gigs for freelancers in the country.

“Increasingly, you're also seeing Filipinos connect directly with international clients,” he said, adding that the freelancing industry is “evolving” as it can now provide a list of gigs and freelance jobs that freelancers can apply to online.