Updates JSS:

A Transparent Reputation

System on Upwork

As one of the leading Ukrainian agencies on Upwork, we keep a close eye on every update to the platform. We analyze how these changes affect freelancers’ visibility, client relationships, and overall work experience. Today, we’re diving into recent updates to the Job Success Score (JSS) and what they mean for freelancers.

What is JSS and Why Does It Matter?

Your Job Success Score (JSS) is a key metric on Upwork that reflects how satisfied your clients are with your work. It’s calculated based on several factors, including client feedback and job outcomes. JSS updates daily and takes into account performance over 6, 12, and 24 months, always showing the highest score from these periods.

Client feedback plays a major role in shaping your JSS. But not all clients fully understand how their reviews impact your rating. Here’s a quick breakdown of how Upwork sees ratings:

100% – You’re nice!
90% and above – Good but could be better.
Below 90% – Something is not OK.
Under 80% – Everything is seriously wrong

For instance, while 4 stars might seem like good feedback in real life, on Upwork, it can lower a freelancer’s average rating. If a client gives all 4-star ratings, it negatively impacts JSS, which in turn affects the freelancer’s reputation.

Until now, freelancers could only guess how JSS was calculated. But thanks to the recent updates, we finally have clarity—and actionable insights to improve our ratings. Let’s share what we’ve learned.

Key Updates this Fall

Starting September 2024, Upwork introduced a big change to JSS policy:

Feedback Removal for Top Rated Freelancers: This feature, which allowed Top Rated and Top Rated Plus freelancers to remove negative feedback, is no longer available. Upwork aims to make the system more transparent, so all reviews—positive and negative—will now remain visible, unless it has any TOS violation.
Job Success Insights Tool: Upwork launched Job Success Insights, a new feature that breaks down your JSS components. It helps freelancers understand how their rating is calculated, which factors influence it, and what steps can be taken to improve it.
Daily JSS Updates: JSS now updates daily instead of biweekly. This means changes in your rating after closing a contract are reflected immediately.

What Impacts Your JSS?

When you first join Upwork, your JSS will appear after completing two contracts or working with two clients within 24 months. Certain contracts won’t impact your JSS—check the Score requirements/Recent jobs tab for details.

The first and obvious element of JSS is Client satisfaction – those same stars we collect. How they are formed:

Public feedback – visible feedback to everyone.
Private feedback – available only to Upwork (without specifying the contract, you can track it on your own page).
Contract ending reason – the reason for the contract termination that is taken into account in the JSS (previously we did not know that Upwork considers this).

The next point that surprised us is the impact of contract duration on JSS. Through the Long-term relationships tab, you can find the main information about your contracts.

Here, we advise you to read carefully and pay special attention, as this tool will help you regulate your rating. Every 90 days, Upwork allows clients to leave new feedback, which has the same impact on your rating as feedback received upon contract completion. Previously, we had to reopen contracts, but now we can simply ask the client for new feedback to improve our rating. Similarly, if we find ourselves in a bad situation (e.g., receiving poor feedback upon contract closure), we can reach out to current clients and ask them for feedback to help restore our JSS.

The next important point is that higher-paying jobs have a greater impact on your rating (Higher earnings tab). By completing one contract, you can count it as a larger impact on JSS, such as 1.5 “jobs” (depending on the payment amount). Here’s how it works:

Contracts with income from $1 to $250 are counted as 1 job.
From $251 to $1,000 – counted as 1.25 jobs.
Over $1,000 – counted as 1.5 jobs.

Upwork has also changed the policy regarding long-term contracts. Previously, long contracts were perceived by the platform as “something wrong” because Upwork preferred activity in terms of opening and closing contracts. As a result, many freelancers pressured clients for reopened contracts. Now on Contract length tab we see that, a contract lasting 90 days or more is counted as an additional "job," for which you can earn stars that impact your JSS (up to a maximum of 8 "jobs" in one contract).

If we examine the last two JSS levers - Higher earnings and Contract length - we can conclude: If we earn $1,001+ every 90 days, each such period will count as 1.5 "jobs". This can happen up to 8 times (over 24 months), and only then does it make sense to close the contract. This means that 1 contract with a term of 24 months will be counted by Upwork as 12 jobs. Additionally, we can still receive extra feedback (up to the full 8!) before the contract closes.

1 contract with a term of 24 months will be counted by Upwork as 12 jobs.

Our team has been testing various hypotheses for 8 years, and we’re not sure whether this scheme worked before. However, we can now confidently say that everything is transparent! Freelancers now have more opportunities to fix their JSS, which strongly influences Upwork rankings.

Freelancers now have more opportunities to fix their JSS, which strongly influences Upwork rankings.

The last tab, Ineligible jobs - jobs that do not affect the JSS, is important to note. We now know for sure that jobs without feedback do not impact the JSS.

Another fall update is the inability to delete feedback. Now, this can only be done by the support team for very serious reasons.

Of course, not everything is clear yet, and there are many factors we still can’t control. But for now, we definitely have a tool to adjust the JSS. Open Job Success Insights in your profile, and you will see a clear and detailed breakdown of your rating, what has affected it, and where there is an opportunity to improve.

What to Do If Your JSS Drops

If your JSS suddenly drops, it’s important to understand how to improve it under the new system.

The solution is simple: get new feedback from your clients. Even if a contract hasn’t been closed but has been active for more than 90 days, you can ask the client to leave a review. This feedback will help update and potentially improve your JSS.

It’s important to remember that the platform rating is just one part of your overall success. Working on improving your service, focusing on client needs, and continuously developing your skills remain key factors in achieving sustainable results on Upwork.