Globally, B2B talent platforms in 2021 reached $13.8 billion in gross spend volume (fees paid to workers plus fees for facilitating transactions), according to Staffing Industry Analysts’ recent report, “The Talent Platform Landscape.” Gross spend volume in the US alone totaled $6.2 billion last year.

Here are the 10 largest talent platforms by gross spend volume in 2021:

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“Talent platform” refers to a segment of online marketplaces that facilitate direct, digitally enabled contingent work arrangements — from sourcing through payment, according to the report.

“These independent marketplaces enable managers to find and engage workers for specific work arrangements,” it states. “The nature of such engagement is most often a one-to-one B2B labor relationship.”

SIA’s report differentiates talent platforms from “work services platforms” and “temporary staffing platforms.”:

• Work services platforms are responsible for the outcome rather than the labor relationship. Examples of work services platforms include Uber and DoorDash.
• Temporary staffing platforms differ in that they incorporate traditional staffing services such as performing background checks, onboarding and time tracking. Most importantly, in the US, temporary staffing platforms provide employer-of-record services, handling employment taxes and workers’ compensation as a traditional staffing firm would. Meanwhile, talent platforms focus primarily on connecting clients with freelancers not employed by the platform, although some do support W-2 workers.

Platform-related work is part of the gig economy as defined by SIA. This definition of gig economy also includes temporary agency work, other temporary work, independent contracting and statement-of-work consulting. It does not include non-labor related online services such as Airbnb and eBay.

Corporate members can download the full “Talent Platform Landscape” report that also details market size, favorable trends, worker loyalty and engagement, M&A activity, the legal environment and more.