Many economists and analysts claimed that 2025 was a transition year for the labor market. We went from the incredibly tight conditions coming out of the pandemic to a cooler, more ‘normal’ job market. With continued general economic uncertainty and paralysis brought on by AI, 2025’s normal became known as the year of ‘slow hiring, slow firing’.
This slowdown obviously impacted the traditional labor force, but the freelance economy continued to show growth, as hiring organizations sought flexibility, expertise, and ways to manage risk. The independent or “extended” workforce (e.g., freelancers and contractors) expanded significantly, with an estimated 72.9 million Americans freelancing in some capacity.
So, as marketing’s on-demand talent platform, what did Wripple’s 2025 look like given the sustained growth of the freelance economy?
Here is what the numbers tell us:
Enterprise marketing teams continued to invest more in and get more done with on-demand talent.
Client contract values continued to go up, driven by a combination of robust growth in staffing contracts that included full-time engagements (long & short term), coupled with an increase in project work delivered by more senior experts that carry a higher bill rate.
In 2025, clients hired talent for longer periods of time. The average engagement length increased to 20 weeks, reflecting a mix of longer staffing engagements and project-based work that was more complex and lengthier in nature.
Staffing remains dominant as single-expert work rises.
While staffing (short and long-term) declined in the overall mix, it remained the largest segment of contracts in 2025. Marketing organizations continued to see staffing as an antidote to hiring freezes that helps to manage risk, including AI’s not-so-clear impact on the workforce.
The other headline here is the rise of single-expert project work in 2025. Clients tapped into outside expertise to do consulting work that enabled teams to build essential capabilities across creative, tech, delivery, and AI.
Data, Tech and AI work declined in 2025 as teams grappled with enterprise AI strategy and enablement. Despite this, demand for AI expertise within specific marketing domains, e.g. UX, copywriting, customer research, etc. remained pervasive. A great example of this in action is our work with Learfield, where Wripple helped drive greater creative efficiency. Read the full story here. Data, Tech, and AI projects declined as teams brought more of this work in-house while grappling with AI strategy and enablement (also known as AI paralysis). Despite this, AI expertise remained pervasive across other project types, including Strategy, Campaign, and Content.
In 2025, the industry that booked the most transactions on the platform stayed the same (and grew as a total percentage of projects), but there was some movement in the ranks worth noting.
So, who is doing all this work with on-demand talent? Travel and Hospitality continues to be at the top of our list, followed by a rise in CPG from number 4 to number 2. Agencies had a challenging year, which saw their hiring volume decline, but they used Wripple’s Talent Pools to be able to react fast and hire quickly when opportunity knocked. Healthcare just missed the cut off to be in the top 5 and has been rising over the last 6 months.
Wripple’s talent marketplace experienced growth of approved talent across all areas of expertise, with AI capabilities becoming a more important factor in the approval process.
In 2025, Wripple saw more people apply as awareness grew and the job market softened. But approvals didn’t rise at the same pace because we kept the bar for acceptance high, adding talent only when their skills and experience matched what clients need. This was especially relevant when it comes to talent exhibiting strong AI proficiency in their respective areas of expertise.
Most new members of the marketplace came from the following roles: Content Strategists, UX Designers, Graphic Designers, Marketing Platform Experts, and Project Managers.
In 2025, the make-up of the talent marketplace remains comprised of highly experienced pros who are, for the most part, fully committed to the freelance life.
There are no real changes to report regarding talents’ level of experience. And that is by design. Unless a client is specifically looking for junior talent, Wripple requires a minimum of 5 years of experience in a chosen field. That being said, in 2025, multiple clients were on the lookout for junior Project Managers, which accounts for the small increase in talent with 0-5 years of experience.
In 2025, we saw a return to historical levels of full-time freelancers within the marketplace (90%). With a cooling labor market, more talent turned to full-time freelancing. Another potential driver is more companies putting policies in place that limit or discourage full-time employees from taking side hustles.
Talent found opportunities across a healthy mix of marketing disciplines and faced pressure on both the pricing and return to office (RTO) fronts.
Wripple’s marketplace offers over 50 marketing roles, enabling clients to select and hire talent across a diverse mix of needs. In 2025, the top 3 roles remained the same as during the prior 2 years with Tech Project Manager and Social Media Strategist breaking into the top 10 for the first time.
In 2025, the number of talent members indicating they are willing to work at a client’s site dropped slightly to 42%, while the percentage of hiring teams requiring at least 1 day of working on site rose to 27%. So, the RTO debate is not over!
Whether sitting in an office or comfortably at home, in 2025, one thing became impossible to ignore: on-demand talent isn’t a “break glass in case of emergency” option anymore. It’s becoming a core pillar of the modern workforce strategy. Enterprise marketing teams aren’t turning to freelancers only when timelines get tight; they’re building relationships with highly skilled talent, increasingly with AI capabilities, to stay competitive. The implications for 2026 are clear: the organizations that win will be the ones that build on-demand talent into their plan. They will gain speed, better access to in-demand expertise, flexibility, and effective risk management.
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To learn more about any or all of these solutions, contact your Wripple Client Lead, or request a demo.
First, let’s take a look at the big picture.
Many economists and analysts claimed that 2025 was a transition year for the labor market. We went from the incredibly tight conditions coming out of the pandemic to a cooler, more ‘normal’ job market. With continued general economic uncertainty and paralysis brought on by AI, 2025’s normal became known as the year of ‘slow hiring, slow firing’.
This slowdown obviously impacted the traditional labor force, but the freelance economy continued to show growth, as hiring organizations sought flexibility, expertise, and ways to manage risk. The independent or “extended” workforce (e.g., freelancers and contractors) expanded significantly, with an estimated 72.9 million Americans freelancing in some capacity.
So, as marketing’s on-demand talent platform, what did Wripple’s 2025 look like given the sustained growth of the freelance economy?
Here is what the numbers tell us:
Enterprise marketing teams continued to invest more in and get more done with on-demand talent.
Client contract values continued to go up, driven by a combination of robust growth in staffing contracts that included full-time engagements (long & short term), coupled with an increase in project work delivered by more senior experts that carry a higher bill rate.
In 2025, clients hired talent for longer periods of time. The average engagement length increased to 20 weeks, reflecting a mix of longer staffing engagements and project-based work that was more complex and lengthier in nature.
Staffing remains dominant as single-expert work rises.
While staffing (short and long-term) declined in the overall mix, it remained the largest segment of contracts in 2025. Marketing organizations continued to see staffing as an antidote to hiring freezes that helps to manage risk, including AI’s not-so-clear impact on the workforce.
The other headline here is the rise of single-expert project work in 2025. Clients tapped into outside expertise to do consulting work that enabled teams to build essential capabilities across creative, tech, delivery, and AI.
Data, Tech and AI work declined in 2025 as teams grappled with enterprise AI strategy and enablement. Despite this, demand for AI expertise within specific marketing domains, e.g. UX, copywriting, customer research, etc. remained pervasive. A great example of this in action is our work with Learfield, where Wripple helped drive greater creative efficiency. Read the full story here. Data, Tech, and AI projects declined as teams brought more of this work in-house while grappling with AI strategy and enablement (also known as AI paralysis). Despite this, AI expertise remained pervasive across other project types, including Strategy, Campaign, and Content.
In 2025, the industry that booked the most transactions on the platform stayed the same (and grew as a total percentage of projects), but there was some movement in the ranks worth noting.
So, who is doing all this work with on-demand talent? Travel and Hospitality continues to be at the top of our list, followed by a rise in CPG from number 4 to number 2. Agencies had a challenging year, which saw their hiring volume decline, but they used Wripple’s Talent Pools to be able to react fast and hire quickly when opportunity knocked. Healthcare just missed the cut off to be in the top 5 and has been rising over the last 6 months.
Wripple’s talent marketplace experienced growth of approved talent across all areas of expertise, with AI capabilities becoming a more important factor in the approval process.
In 2025, Wripple saw more people apply as awareness grew and the job market softened. But approvals didn’t rise at the same pace because we kept the bar for acceptance high, adding talent only when their skills and experience matched what clients need. This was especially relevant when it comes to talent exhibiting strong AI proficiency in their respective areas of expertise.
Most new members of the marketplace came from the following roles: Content Strategists, UX Designers, Graphic Designers, Marketing Platform Experts, and Project Managers.
In 2025, the make-up of the talent marketplace remains comprised of highly experienced pros who are, for the most part, fully committed to the freelance life.
There are no real changes to report regarding talents’ level of experience. And that is by design. Unless a client is specifically looking for junior talent, Wripple requires a minimum of 5 years of experience in a chosen field. That being said, in 2025, multiple clients were on the lookout for junior Project Managers, which accounts for the small increase in talent with 0-5 years of experience.
In 2025, we saw a return to historical levels of full-time freelancers within the marketplace (90%). With a cooling labor market, more talent turned to full-time freelancing. Another potential driver is more companies putting policies in place that limit or discourage full-time employees from taking side hustles.
Talent found opportunities across a healthy mix of marketing disciplines and faced pressure on both the pricing and return to office (RTO) fronts.
Wripple’s marketplace offers over 50 marketing roles, enabling clients to select and hire talent across a diverse mix of needs. In 2025, the top 3 roles remained the same as during the prior 2 years with Tech Project Manager and Social Media Strategist breaking into the top 10 for the first time.
In 2025, the number of talent members indicating they are willing to work at a client’s site dropped slightly to 42%, while the percentage of hiring teams requiring at least 1 day of working on site rose to 27%. So, the RTO debate is not over!
Whether sitting in an office or comfortably at home, in 2025, one thing became impossible to ignore: on-demand talent isn’t a “break glass in case of emergency” option anymore. It’s becoming a core pillar of the modern workforce strategy. Enterprise marketing teams aren’t turning to freelancers only when timelines get tight; they’re building relationships with highly skilled talent, increasingly with AI capabilities, to stay competitive. The implications for 2026 are clear: the organizations that win will be the ones that build on-demand talent into their plan. They will gain speed, better access to in-demand expertise, flexibility, and effective risk management.
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