The gig economy is a growing and influential part of the modern workforce and we aim to provide the same type of value for these independent workers as those in more traditional 9 to 5 professions. On the other side of the coin, we strive to extend this value to our members looking to hire these types of white-collar freelance professionals. If you have a home improvement or repair project, there are a number of established on-demand marketplaces available for those needs. But what if you’re looking to buy your first home? Or you’re in need of some professional coaching as you navigate your next career move? Finding the right person for these types of professional services can feel like finding a needle in a haystack. With LinkedIn ProFinder, we aim to do the heavy lifting to quickly and easily connect you with the best-suited and most qualified professional freelancers for the job.

Ready to get started? Head to https://www.linkedin.com/profinder to submit your project request. Once your request has been submitted, we’ll send it to the most aptly qualified professionals, starting with those in your network or extended network first, and you’ll receive up to five detailed proposals in response. As you review them, you’ll be able to see your common connections - something you can only get on LinkedIn - and review the profiles of potential hires to see their experience, skills, samples of their work and recommendations from their past clients. All of these mechanisms are in place to ensure you’re hiring the best person for the job and doing so with confidence and trust.

ProFinder is available in the US only for now. We look forward to hearing your feedback and continuing to improve the experience to help you find the best freelance hires for your projects. For more insights and how-to’s from our ProFinder team, be sure to checkout our ProFinder blog.

Methodology

*The results of this analysis represent the world seen through the lens of LinkedIn data. As such, it is influenced by how members choose to use the site, which can vary based on professional, social, and regional culture, as well as overall site availability and accessibility. These variances were not accounted for in the analysis. The sample is comprised of LinkedIn members identified as freelance professionals based on profile headline, summary, title and/or current position.

For the freelancer migration and growth/decline per state analyses, data was collected from Aug 2015 to Aug 2016 and movement was determined by members’ location change, as LinkedIn membership is correlated with actual population. The analysis only considered members who had an active profile with a valid location as of Aug 2015.

Freelance industry 5 year growth was determined from an analysis of Jan 2011 and Jan 2016 freelancer profiles, separately. The percentage of increase for each industry group was then calculated via the industry specifications in the members’ profiles.