Lack of Jobs - What is Going On?
I know this has been posted before but what the hell is happening with the number of projects that are being posted? As it stands, in the writing category, there are 150 jobs. Just a few months ago, this was sitting at 200, then 180 and now it is down to 150.
Is there any admin around to provide any guidance or assistance on this? The thing is, the majority of the jobs being posted are now way below the rate that anyone would charge. One job as an example is a full website rewrite. The site has more than 1,00,000 words and for that I would charge £40,000 at my usual rate but the pay being offered is £500.....what kind of payment is that?
I have been looking at the traffic on the site and it is sitting higher during August than it was during July and June yet this is not translating into queries, jobs and orders. What is going on?
I think us long-standing members do have some kind of right when it comes to knowing what is happening, bearing in mind that some of us have earned a living from here for many, many years.
So, does anyone have any insight into what is happening and why?
Thanks
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This is the trap we fall into as freelancers. Is it better to ruthlessly undercut on the price in order to get some work or hold out for better pay and risk having no work at all?
In the past I have taken some very low paid projects on PPH just to keep some money ticking through the account. -
I'm making pretty much nothing now - had a good run over 13 years but ChatGPT annihilated everything and now I'm bringing a pitiful amount in. Don't know what to do with all this experience as it seems to count for nothing in the eyes of potential employers and clients. Need money so applying for anything I think I'm capable of doing, both online and offline. Living a nightmare tbh.
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If anything all this experience makes things worse when applying for normal jobs just to survive - starting to think employers really hate freelancers as I'm getting turned down for EVERYTHING. I had a 10k drop in income last year because of AI and this tax year looks like it's going to be even worse. Trying to think of other skills I could learn and use online but looks like AI is coming for them too. Don't know what to do and can't get any useful help from any sort of 'careers expert' as they don't seem to have a clue either. Employers don't seem to give two hoots about 'transferable skills', they just want people who are applying for the exact same role they already have. Thought I'd at least be able to get work editing or improving what ChatGPT plops out but apparently not.
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I am going to have to leave looking for employment until after the summer if it gets to the point where I have to actually look for work. I have a month's holiday booked in the summer, so no employer is going to want to take me on!
I know that a few other writers that I was outsourcing to have gone into full time employment and they have been able to work with agencies operating in the writing industry. There are some torrid times ahead for many people unfortunately.
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PPH is now only a tiny part of the problem - I think there needs to be some intervention from a higher power at some point. What's going to happen when there are millions more people unemployed because the technology has advanced too quickly before anyone can get a chance to make sense of or regulate it? It won't be good for the economy when hardly anybody is putting anything back into it because they're hardly earning anything in the first place.
I know technological advancements created new jobs in the past but I'm not sure that's going to be the case this time, otherwise we'd have tonnes of 'Chat GPT prompt engineer' jobs to apply for. And yet there are still countless 'copywriting gurus' on the socials promising people the chance to earn hundreds of pounds an hour from a cafe or a hammock if they only sign up for their courses. Laughable. I'm between a rock and a hard place as can't earn a living doing this but can't get a different job either, because I've been doing this.
On a lighter note, hope you enjoy your holiday! -
I'm in the same situation. £20k down last year from 2022, and this year I'm struggling even further. I'm the household earner too. I've looked at outside employment but there isn't anything which jumps out as being doable. I don't want to be a carer! I'm hoping to struggle through this year and then hope that clients realise that Chat GPT isn't the best thing since sliced bread. It's robotic and repetitive and can't provide the human touch. It will blow itself out, I think, when Google rankings disadvantage them. In the meantime, yes it's worrying. I go to food banks. I have learnt to cook better with less, and we monitor water, gas and electric usage. Yes, it's got that bad, but I'm trying not to give up. That said, most of my projects are not from PPH.
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I'm 41, I shouldn't be living like this. I have spent well over a decade fine-tuning my craft and getting better and better at it for what? I wouldn't mind but I can tell AI content from a mile off and it's bland robotic personality-free rubbish! People don't care though as apparently it's good for SEO in any case and I can't compete with 'free'.
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I'm now a weekly customer at my local food bank, who are very understanding. Apparently there's someone from the council who's a bit of a job/recruitment expert coming on Friday, we'll see whether they state the obvious or not. They are very understanding though. Thankfully my other half has now got a full-time job but it's not up to her to pay for everything and it's not enough for a whole household. Nonetheless, there are still people seeking human writers out there. It's not like I charged the earth anyway, right now I'd happily take £11.44 an hour or whatever minimum/living wage is now. My mental health is on its ass but we'll have to see what happens. I've tried very hard to secure jobs in all kinds of fields but getting nowhere.
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I've spent THREE decades typing business interviews, seminars, lectures, conferences, etc to a 90 wpm level. It's all gone down the pan. One transcription job in a blue moon, and that's flooded with offers from graphic designers, computer software operators with no skill, but will just put it through Otter for a few quid. It's heartbreaking.
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This can't continue - whoever the next Government is will have to intervene to stop AI running ragged or the economy will absolutely tank! It's ruining people's lives! Have even taken the step of trying to arrange a chat with my local MP about it.
Really sad to hear your story, hopefully we can all find a way through this. I'm wondering whether to just take it all off my CV for the sake of stacking a few shelves so I can survive but then how do I explain what I've been doing all this time? -
After the speech from Sunak yesterday, I am not sure they are taking the severity of the situation seriously. He was saying how AI is part of the future of this country and will be like an assistant in our lives but what he isn't looking at is the massive knock on effect. If AI puts people out of work (which it is), then it is going to impact the economy. The depth of the effect will ripple through so many industries. Our industries have been hit but web design, marketing, SEO, call centres, Personal Assistants, data inputting, inventory management, accounting even, it is all at risk. Only manual jobs are safe at the moment and if things go in the wrong direction, I am seriously thinking about training in a trade. The thing is, I don't have a degree. I have a HND in computing which I obtained back in 2006, so that is irrelevant now. I would like to think that having run a business and worked as a Freelancer would be a huge positive. There are many skills and characteristics that can be moved across with the likes of us. After all, working for yourself and being successful requires drive, determination, commitment, consistency and a level of care in the final product that delivers satisfaction, not forgetting the skills we have to do what we do.
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I tried to sign on for Job Seeker's Allowance so that I can be officially registered as looking for a job and have some money for travel to interviews, etc. They've changed it to Universal Credit, and I don't qualify because my husband, 10 years older than myself, has just got his state pension, and a household cannot have both benefits. Neither can we have Pension Credit because both parties need to be of pensionable age to qualify. So we are left with a basic of £840 a month if I can't secure work. Like I've said, I have had private work trickling through but nothing on PPH which was once my mainstay. I'm not first in any employer's list of applicants. I'm too old to retrain.
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Ah Nancy, I am so sorry to hear of that. I am not panicking yet ( trying very hard not to). I am 39, my wife is a teacher working part time but she could go back full time which would bring in a very good wage. Then, if needs must, I could get a job doing something basic while also doing some writing on the side to increase my income. However, as I have mentioned, I cannot really do anything until after my holiday. I do have a good amount of savings behind me too and I am used to living off those due to the fact that I am a limited company. For the last two years, I have had to live off my savings from the end of the financial year to the other as taking a wage is too complicated other than a basic wage (as part of my tax free allowance). My situation could be a lot worse.
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Sorry to hear everyone is having it tough. AI is a massive problem but lets also be honest PPH has not helped itself. A lack of good marketing and a vast number of cheap offers and crap freelancers (which cannot be anymore beneficial to them) as well as no staff.
Interesting I get a lot of people on LinkedIn who tell me that they don't trust the site.
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Hello all,
Just wanted to check in to see how everyone is doing in terms of workload on the site? It is such a bizarre thing to see and watch. I know things are slow because the difference in time between the top message and last message on my first page of messages is 15 days!!! I remember a time when the difference between the top message and last message was a day or so.
I know AI has had a huge impact on things as we have discussed, and I know that AI checkers are now the next bone of contention for us writers. I put a post up on LinkedIn about it and it absolutely took off - https://www.linkedin.com/posts/craig-brett-17398316b_writing-freelancewriting-aicheckers-activity-7212021770839584768-BcZT?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop
It is not a pleasant time at all.
Craig
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This site gets little custom now. I don't think people will pay for written content if they can do it themselves using Chat GPT. A common comment on your Linkedin thread, Craig, was why should it matter - a client has hired you. My thought is they don't want to pay you for your time and effort when they can install free AI software and generate something which suits their needs - not quite as good as a human touch - but it meets their needs.
Secondly, this site is full of poor calibre freelancers. I have had to cancel all my projects on here due to not being able to find good quality help. People who are date entry or IT specialists have suddenly become expert transcribers over night? No, their level of English tells me they haven't. New freelancers from the Asian continent harass you all the time, don't take no for an answer. Clients aren't going to put up with that - they want quality.
The majority of my custom is not from PPH. That has also faltered, but I have a small circle of clients, mainly magazine work who will repeatedly return. However, once the magazine trade fails, like a row of dominos so will I. Who buys magazines? Funded by advertisers and there's too much of them!
I'm not surviving. This has now become more of a part time hobby. I'm lucky to have any custom from PPH at all. Not helped by their poor customer service and overall inefficiency. I can see us all having to adapt and change our profession, which again will not be easy. Grateful for pickings off the table!
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I'm only picking up the odd bit of work on PPH that is mostly existing clients with a bit of follow up work. I'm not specifically looking for anything but I'm also finding that when enquiries do come in, I'm frequently not informed. I just logged in today because I thought there was some money that had reached the 14 day release period, and I spotted an enquiry from an offer that had been there for a week and I didn't know about it. Without email notifications there is no point in having an offer. The same thing happened a few weeks ago and by the time I replied the client had made alternative arrangements.
Fortunately I'm quite busy with online maths tuition, so I don't really need freelance programming, but I will happily take some if I can find any.
I did invoice for a job on PPH about a week into September and it put me into the monthly top 100 for my category (I think it might be Technology). It was either £30 or £40. That does suggest that there is very little work all round. -
I just do not get how it is all working because I am seeing other writers at the top of the leaderboard who are earning more than myself. Now, this is all fine but I was almost always in the top ten or top 5 but now I cannot get anywhere near it and attracting work is nothing more than a lottery.
This time last year, I took £1900 and October 2022 I took £6.5k. At this moment in time I have taken less than £200. It is pathetic and a massive change. I have had a couple of sales on Fiverr but all from the same person so I am hoping that the orders pick up on there but that is nothing more than being hopeful!
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My thoughts exactly, Craig. How are these people managing it?
But look at their profiles, and their portfolio of work (if they have them). Some writers cannot write grammatically, and their structure is awful. They get a lot of work though. That tells me that a) clients are unable to discern good from bad, and b) They will continue to use the same freelancer as they don't wish to go through the route of posting a project and going through hundreds of applicants. You'll notice these projects are from 'hourlies,' not posted generally.
I feel as though I'm lucky to get one hit per month on this site. That could range from £30 to £100. A fraction of what I earnt two years ago. I really don't know where I'm going with this.
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Hi
Just wondering how things are going for people?
I'm still on about 25% of my old income, way below the tax threshold and just battling to find money whichever way I can, about 2% of it is through writing though so far this year, it's more through online surveys and studies and things, it's so rubbish and depressing.
I feel like my 10+ years in the industry when things were going well count for absolutely nothing, can't even get a reply for a job application, nevermind an interview and there's about two credible writing jobs on PPH a week, which obviously everyone goes for.
I have had about three hours of writing work in 2026.
Bloody AI!
And the Government don't seem to give a cr@p about how we've all been thrown under the bus.
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