MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.—-Upwork ($UPWK), the largest freelancing website, today released its newest quarterly index of the hottest skills in the U.S. freelance job market. The Upwork Skills Index ranks the site’s 20 fastest-growing skills in a quarterly series.

It sheds light on new and emerging skills and provides real-time validation of current trends in the labor market and tech industry. According to a new report, access to skills and talent scarcity are the biggest hiring challenges.

“Labor markets overall are tightening, and for many skills, employers are increasingly struggling to find available workers in their local areas,” said Stephane Kasriel, CEO of Upwork and co-chair of the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council on the New Social Contract. “As a result, the array of skills employers are finding through digital platforms is growing, including technical skills like Hadoop and Kubernetes as well as non-technical skills such as taxation and urban planning.”

The 20 fastest-growing freelance skills in Q1 2019 experienced more than 170 percent year-over-year growth, while demand for the top 10 skills grew more than 370 percent year-over-year.

The top 20 fastest-growing skills, Q1 2019:

1. U.S. Taxation
2. Hadoop
3. Robotic process automation
4. Explainer videos
5. Computer aided manufacturing
6. Financial planning
7. Urban design
8. Software documentation
9. Salesforce Commerce Cloud
10. Geospatial
11. Julia development
12. Kubernetes
13. Magento
14. Employee training
15. Shopify templates
16. Certified Public Accountant (CPA)
17. Vue.js framework
18. Leadership development
19. Architectural rendering
20. Podcasting

Key Insights

Tax reform, potential Recession spur growth in financial skills

On the heels of the tax reform bill passed in 2018, U.S. Taxation (#1) was this quarter’s fastest-growing skill out of more than 5,000 freelancers offer on Upwork.com. Those unfamiliar with the new law tapped into the freelance talent pool to help navigate the transition and better understand the advantages and challenges of filing under the new system. Tax season also spurred demand for Certified Public Accountants (#16) and financial planning (#6)specialists.

Automation helps capture business value

Organizations are becoming more automation-savvy, earning robotic process automation (RPA) (#3) a spot on the index for the first time. Unicorns like Automation Anywhere and UiPath are providing solutions to large companies to help automate tasks and processes that have traditionally been done manually by humans. As RPA adoption increases among Enterprises, Forrester estimates that the market will grow to $2.9 billion in 2021 (from $250 million in 2016).

Changing city infrastructure causes spike in demand for urban planning

According to a report, 73 percent of all teams will have remote workers by 2028. As remote work adoption increases and more people are able to live and work where they choose versus where their work is, city infrastructure is also changing. Urban design (#7) specialists are helping keep up with this evolution by arranging and designing public spaces, transportation systems and amenities for residents, tenants and visitors. Geospatial (#10) technologies, which map and analyze the Earth’s surface, and architectural renderings (#19) also saw significant growth as the public and private sector alike look for ways to optimize current and future space.

Companies increase investment in eCommerce tools

Global eCommerce sales are expected to reach $4.8 trillion by 2021, and more than 2.1 billion shoppers are expected to buy goods and services online. Experts familiar with Salesforce Commerce Cloud (#9) were highly sought-after last quarter to help companies deliver personalized customer experiences across mobile, digital and social platforms, and Magento (#13), an eCommerce solution recently acquired by Adobe ($ADBE), also experienced high growth as companies look to build new online storefronts to increase online revenue. Shopify templates (#15), which brands are leveraging to ensure storefronts deliver a unified experience,also appeared on this quarter’s list for the first time.

Businesses double down on learning and development

With tightening labor markets, businesses are investing more dollars in developing their workers, and employee training (#14) saw an uptick in demand for the second consecutive quarter as a result. Development extends beyond technical skills and into soft skills such as leadership development (#18), which also appeared on this quarter’s list. Platforms like BetterUp are leading the disruption of the L&D industry; and in addition to investing in formal, corporate programs, companies are turning to freelance specialists to create an overall strategy to ensure their workforce is prepared for tomorrow.

Marketers seek new ways to connect and communicate with customers

Video marketing has proven effective in an era where global consumer Internet video traffic is projected to account for 80 percent of all consumer Internet traffic. Marketers are taking it back to the basics and investing in freelance specialists who can create explainer videos (#4) that help customers better understand complex products or services. Podcasting (#20) has also become a popular way to meet customers where they are; they’re easy to consume and help businesses connect directly to listeners, regardless of location.