IT leads industries in remote jobs

The number of remote and hybrid jobs increased 20% last year, continuing a pandemic-led trend that saw remote jobs jump 12% in 2021, according to a new report by online job site FlexJobs.

While the rise in remote and hybrid jobs over the past two years isn’t surprising — the arrival of COVID-19 forced many companies to embrace workplace flexibility — the percent of remote or hybrid roles for manager- and senior-level positions is noteworthy.

A majority of remote and hybrid positions on FlexJob’s website were for experienced-level jobs (62%), while manager and senior-level roles claimed 32% of the remote job listings. The remaining 6% of postings involved entry-level positions.

FlexJob defines a “remote job” as a professional-level position that allows the employee to work entirely from home or part of the time in a hybrid arrangement. Most commonly, remote is defined as working from home 100% of the time.

Leading all other industries in the company's remote work category was the Computer and IT industry, followed by the Marketing industry. Accounting and Finance was in the third spot for most remote work.

Gallup

Among the top careers that saw high growth rates were accounting and finance (31%), HR and recruiting (22%), and marketing (20%). Computer/IT, project management, and medical and health grew more modestly, while customer service dropped 6%.

Other categories for remote jobs, although lower in total volume, also saw growth. Non-profits (55%), communications (39%), and legal (33%) saw significant growth in remote job postings in 2022 compared to 2021. 

Conversely, historically strong categories such as sales and education did not grow in the past year. Sales stayed stagnant, while education fell by 4%.

“Even amid current economic uncertainty and challenges, the continued interest and investment in remote work has created a healthy, robust marketplace for remote career opportunities,” Sara Sutton, founder and CEO of FlexJobs, said in a statement.

Earlier this month, online job search site Indeed published a list of the “best” remote jobs available. That list included technical support engineer, application developer, and software engineer positions. In Remote’s report, the IT industry came in third place out of a list of 10 industries.

Currently, 43% of knowledge workers, including web designers, system analysts and technical writers, can work fully remote, according to research firm Gartner.

In June 2022, a Gallup survey found that half of all people are engaged in a hybrid work model, three in 10 are working fully remote, and only two in 10 are working fully on-site. 

“Approximately 56% of full-time employees in the U.S. — more than 70 million workers — say their job can be done working remotely from home. We call them ‘remote-capable employees,’“ Gallup said.

Gallup

FlexJobs' report highlighted the top 100 companies for remote work based on an ananalysis of job postings from nearly 58,000 companies in 2022. The list included 28 new remote and hybrid-friendly firms, such as Airbnb, Allstate, DoorDash, Lyft, and Reddit, along with companies such as CVS Health, Kelly job services, Parexel, SAP, and UnitedHealth Group, which have all made the list each year since 2014.

Earning the No. 1 spot in the top 100 was Liveops, a virtual call center provider. On-demand sales and customer service provider Worker Solutions came in second and business process outsourcing firm TTEC came in third. CVS Health, Kelly job services, Williams-Sonoma and UnitedHealth Group were also in the top 10.