The Upwork Fill Rate Index
July 2026 edition · jobs posted October 2025 through February 2026 (617,336 resolved postings) · methodology
Headline: what happens to an Upwork job
Cohorts are measured only after outcomes have settled; young cohorts overstate fill rate. This is why our number differs from other published hire rates: the methodology page walks through the comparison.
Fill rate by category
| Category | Fill rate | Resolved jobs |
|---|---|---|
| Translation | 51.3% | n = 11,275 |
| Design & Creative | 48.8% | n = 159,114 |
| Engineering & Architecture | 48.3% | n = 24,414 |
| Writing | 46.2% | n = 21,272 |
| Data Science & Analytics | 45.1% | n = 19,569 |
| Admin Support | 45% | n = 54,757 |
| Web, Mobile & Software Dev | 44.5% | n = 146,707 |
| IT & Networking | 40.6% | n = 13,941 |
| Accounting & Consulting | 40.4% | n = 25,905 |
| Legal | 38.1% | n = 7,440 |
| Sales & Marketing | 36.4% | n = 121,040 |
| Customer Service | 35.2% | n = 11,902 |
Time-to-fill
Of 15,970 filled jobs (jobs posted April 2026), how long after posting the hire happened:
| Within 24 hours | 14.2% | |
| 1 to 3 days | 14.3% | |
| 3 to 7 days | 47.1% | |
| 7 to 14 days | 14.3% | |
| 14 to 30 days | 10% |
A job that has been open for more than a week has already missed the window in which three quarters of hires happen; by two weeks, 90% have.
Fill rate by experience level
Expert-tier postings are the least likely to hire.
Fixed-price jobs fill more often than hourly
18.4% of cohort postings carry no budget type and are excluded from this split.
Client history predicts hiring
Fill rate by the client's prior spend at posting time:
Fill rate by client country
Top ten countries by posting volume:
| Client country | Fill rate | Cohort jobs |
|---|---|---|
| United States | 47.5% | 295,583 |
| United Kingdom | 44.4% | 55,069 |
| Australia | 46.6% | 38,173 |
| Canada | 43.4% | 34,369 |
| India | 26.7% | 25,764 |
| Netherlands | 37% | 14,334 |
| Germany | 42.2% | 14,271 |
| United Arab Emirates | 39.7% | 13,601 |
| Pakistan | 41.4% | 12,750 |
| France | 38.3% | 9,957 |
Niche reports are coming
Per-niche deep dives: demand volume, real rates, fill rate, time-to-fill, and client quality for the niche you work in. Join the waitlist and tell us your niche; the most-requested niches get built first.