How do you think the economic downturn will affect your work on oDesk?

I selected "more job opportunities" for the simple reason that as companies are forced to 'think outside the box' they're going to be looking for more temporary workers.

I believe oDesk and other freelance sites should see an increase in traffic from buyers looking to get tasks done - but many of these jobs will be 'short term' versus long term.

Until industry really understands the value of being able to hire remote workers for longer term assignments (and I think that the way for *us* to help that is to blog, write articles, etc about it) what will continue to happen is we'll get a lot of 'one of' buyers in this 'new' marketplace due to the financial crisis but many businesses will still opt for the 'tried and true' methods that they've always used such as hiring part time/in house staff or using temporary agencies.  We're currently very fortunate in that the relationships that are built on oDesk lend themselves nicely to longer term relationships, but that's really up to us to develop and cultivate with our own buyers.

The more we can 'blow our own horns' the better, this will help business be more productive while still keeping their costs down sice they are not paying for equipment, electricity, benefits, etc., for keeping someone in house/on staff.

The flip side of this is that I also anticipate that we'll see a lot of new providers looking for work.  It stands to reason as work forces shrink in the 'traditional' brick and mortar workplace that these displaced workers need *someplace* to go.  This means that sites like oDesk will likely see an influx of new providers with a variety of new skills as well.

Ironically enough had I reviewed the question a little more carefully I would have seen that the 'will bring more providers' isn't really germain to the question at all since the question is how it would affect *our* work and additional job seekers or providers shouldn't impact our *work* per se

Whoops, sorry :)  Off soapbox!

Doreen

I voted for "I think it will mean less job opportunities"
I think if more people are getting out of work there will be more freelancers and less buyers looking to thus my fear of oversupply of freelancers. Maybe this will be the time i will focus on my own products =)

Well if you calculate the cost of running a business or even an office, I think odesk is a cost efficient alternative. I say it would definately create more opportunities. The thing is there has to be a greater awareness of this service. It would save tons of dollars on both sides. It allows the providers to remotely work in the comfort of their homes or wherever which in turn means extra money and less gas you use to get it and it saves the buyer time and money as well.

If you can't get managers to "think inside the duh" by raising gas prices to $500/gallon, then the second choice is to lower everyone's income to the point where suddenly it becomes (even more?) glaringly obvious that employees in jobs that do NOT require physical presence (such as software development) are not exactly thrilled by the opportunity to have mass fundage pointlessly yanked out of their pockets and their stress levels raised up through the roof in exchange for the privilege of contributing to air pollution and global warming that are integral parts of the daily commute.

In the economic downturn, maybe people will come to their senses at long last, and the vast majority of desk jobs will be conducted via Internet.  We should have done this 2 decades ago.

I went with "more job opportunities" because of the "$0 an hour?" thread. I'm sure we'll get more jobs, with people doing work for $1 an hour.

I think there will be more job opportunities, but that providers will start underbidding out of desperation.

Not all is bad in an economic 'downturn'. It simply means a number of things we're doing now may not work anymore. But people like to survive -- people normally choose to survive. This means the so-called downturn will produce new needs, the new needs will either create new buyers or cause existing buyers to realign, the new buyers and the realigned old buyers will be supported by providers. I think the economic downturn will simply introduce new challenges to the oDesk providers.

...fortunately!

As for ranting about gas prices, commuting, global warming and all that other stuff...puh-leeze. Certainly we should have more people working on a telecommute basis--but that also means we need to have really sharp, dependable, competent people out there doing the work as well. Overall, I voted for "more opportunities"--because creative people ALWAYS find the opportunities hidden in any external situation, no matter if it's "boom" or "bust." Whether we have to adjust our rates or not remains to be seen...but for the competent, the creative, and the positive, the opportunities will always be there. It's simply a matter of taking consistent action to bring enough of them to the door!

People will be out there looking for a job.  Reason is, that some folks will end up losing their jobs due to the economy. Thus, having people wanting to make money.

I voted that it will increase our job opportunities. I believe that many more companies and individuals will be in the

market for low cost  web service providers. There are a considerable amount of people turning to the web for

financial or personal gain every day. Todays economy is forcing everyone to try and keep up with the rising costs of inflation. If we as providers strive to offer the best possible services available on the web, Odesk will continue to have a steady increase of buyers to keep most of us busy earning a steady income.

Just my 2 cents worth... 

As per our economic downturn, I feel that more job opportunities will arise but there will also be more job seekers.

I choose "it will bring more job opportunities".

I mean "more outsourcing job opportunities".

No needs to overpay to local staff today unless you would like to become bankrupt tomorrow.

It will bring new job opportunities but in turn it will also affect the hourly rates and the price factor. For example if a person is from the USA, due to the recession they would sit back and think that if I am paying $8ph to a provider due to the recession i wont be able to afford the same and would move on to someone who is a cheaper than the first provider. So i feel that it will generate more outsourcing but second step will be that it will also reduce the hourly rate charges and earning.

I think it will bring Odesk more job seekers and less providers, in turn getting Job seekers lesser rates which will force us to look for other sources.

Thanks,

Kiran

I figure that if I highlight all my best qualities it will bring in more clients. I also provide quality work for a reasonable price, so that would be a selling point as well.