Online staffing’s global revenue is expected to double over two years, reaching $2.0 billion in 2014 from an estimated 2012 market size of $1.0 billion, according to the “U.S. Staffing Industry Forecast: April Update” released by Staffing Industry Analysts.

The online staffing industry is comprised of firms that bring together workers (such as independent contractors) and buyers via online platforms. Often the two never meet in person. Examples of such firms include Elance and oDesk.

“Based on our ongoing analysis of this emerging industry area, we expect robust growth in coming years,” said Research Analyst Andrew Karpie.

“Growth is being fueled by a number of fundamental labor demand and supply-side factors,” Karpie said. “In addition, established players (like oDesk and Elance) are expected to continue to grow not only based on these labor market fundamentals, but also based on innovative changes and extensions to their platforms to address adjacent market segments. On top of that, even without counting crowdsourcing firms, a considerable number of newer online staffing platform players are also experimenting with and introducing other innovative models that promise to capture and expand labor services markets. Our current forecast also takes into account dampening factors such as regulatory friction and institutional inertia in enterprises.” 

Corporate members can access the full forecast by clicking here.