The Contingent Workforce and Services (CW/S) Insiders’ Hot List: December 2020

Welcome to the December 2020 edition of Spend Matters Insiders’ Hot List, a monthly look at the contingent workforce and services (CW/S) space. For those new to the Hot List, each edition covers the prior month’s important or interesting technology and innovation developments in the CW/S space.

In the last Hot List we covered key events and developments that took place in November 2020. These included the arrival of a new VMS solution, ProcureWise, two direct sourcing/MSP partnerships (WillHire and Yoh, Shortlist and NextSource), Mailchimp’s new freelancer community, the launch of a diversity-based freelancer marketplace, Ebuynee, and more. 

Turning to November, what was for many a complicated and stressful month, we observed an industry that was very much alive and well (despite being bruised up a bit). In November, the industry continued to recover and some sub-markets grew quickly. The staffing industry continued its steady climb from its cave-in this March (on 11/15, the ASA Staffing Index was just 9% under the index value one year earlier). And online freelancer platforms seemed to continue to benefit from COVID-19 tailwinds (or are they structural shifts?). The app-based gig economy also continued its robust expansion. We also discovered at least one new company that impressed us. So, all in all, not bad!