AI didn't hit the worst freelance writers first. It hit the best ones
Victim: freelance writers ✍️ They're being hit from the top down, the opposite of what everyone expected.
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📉 Volume: writing jobs on Upwork fell 33% from November 2022 to February 2024. Translation fell 19%, customer service 16%.
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💸 Pay: after ChatGPT's release, writers' monthly earnings dropped 5.2%, and they became 1.2% less likely to get any work at all in a given month.
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🏆 The twist: the most skilled freelancers, the top-rated ones with higher hourly rates, saw the biggest drop in new jobs and income.
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🎬 What's growing instead: video editing and production jobs rose 39% over the same period.
Why: the best writers charged the most, so clients saved the most by switching. For blog posts and product descriptions, "good enough and free" beat "excellent and $80 an hour." The writers who survive sell something AI can't fake: a name, a voice, or real expertise.