According to the latest research from Setapp, the frontier platform for Mac app subscription services, basic administrative tasks are costing freelance workers billions of pounds each year.
In Britain, there are currently around 4.93 million freelancers. According to this research, these often forgotten gig economy workers are spending an average of eight and a half days a year on basic administrative tasks, costing them and the UK economy around £28.1 billion annually.
The survey, which sampled over 1,000 British freelancers, found that the most consuming tasks were filing taxes (44 per cent), cleaning emails (30 per cent) and fixing IT problems (28 per cent).
Only one in ten respondents said that they had seen a decrease in the number of admin tasks they had to do since they joined the gig economy with just under half (44 per cent) saying they’ve seen a significant increase. An indication of the negative impact freelance work is having on gig economy workers.
Almost half (48 per cent) of the freelancers surveyed said that having to undertake the often time-consuming admin tasks held back their productivity, with 16-24-year-olds finding this task the most frustrating (63 per cent).
They are now concerned that these poor and time-consuming admin processes, further deepening the ongoing productivity crisis,  as freelancers are usually paid for the outputs for their client, meaning it’s vital for the economy that freelancers are able to maximise their productivity.
Oleksandr Kosovan, CEO and Founder of Setapp said, “Freelancers are missing out on a substantial amount of money through the inefficiency of how they’re taking on admin tasks. Time is money in the freelancing world, and the existing approach is diverting time away from tasks that could increase the revenue they’re able to generate for themselves and the UK economy.”