The number of US freelancers hit a new high this year, according to data from talent platform Upwork.

There were 64 million Americans freelancing this year, up by 4 million from 2020, according to Upwork’s 2023 Freelance Forward survey. That represents 38% of the entire US workforce.

Freelancers also contributed $1.27 trillion to the US economy in annual earnings this year. For comparison, that’s up 78% from $715 billion in 2014, the first year of the study.

Upwork’s survey included of 3,000 professionals. Some of the other findings were:

• Freelancers are 2.2 times more likely to regularly use generative AI frequently in their work; 20% of freelancers use generative AI tools on a regular basis (multiple times per week), which compares to just 9% of nonfreelance professionals.
• Nearly half of freelancers provide skilled knowledge services; 47% of all freelancers, or nearly 30 million professionals, provided knowledge services such as computer programming, marketing, IT and business consulting in 2023.
• A quarter of freelancers are creating influencer-style content; 23% of all freelancers, or 14.7 million professionals, created influencer content including livestream services, social media videos, images or blogs in 2023.
• More than half of all Gen Z professionals, 52%, and 44% of all millennial professionals performed freelance work.
• Older Americans continue to be part of the freelance market; in 2023, nearly 8.3 million professionals, or 13% of all US freelancers, were aged 59 or above.