“Nearly 4 million U.S. employees worked from home at least half of the time in 2015”, according to 2017 Global Workplace Analytics and FlexJobs 2017 State of Telecommuting in the U.S. Employee Workforce report. Actually,
Number of remote jobs grew 115% in the past decade,
nearly ten times faster than the rest of the workforce
You also may have heard about this new cool thing; it is called Remote jobs, telecommuting or teleworking. There are much information and much misinformation about the new way of working.
The post will provide basic your with basic facts you need to know if you want to start working remotely. Please note, most facts were sourced from the abovementioned report, personal interviews and my personal experience working remotely or semi-remotely for the past five years.
Key Remote Job Facts
Worker impact. Half-time telecommuters gain back 11 days a year—time they would have otherwise spent commuting
Annual income. Remote workers earn $4,000 more annually vs. regular employees
Demographics. Gender: equal percentage of women and men. Age: the majority are 45 years of age or older
Education. Remote employees tend to have higher education vs. regular employees. Majority attained a Bachelor degree vs. 37% of non-telecommuters
Occupations. Management, computer science, mathematical, and military jobs. Professional, scientific, and technical services industries had the highest percentage of teleworkers
Employers. Numbers of employers who offered remote jobs nearly doubled since 2010. Overall only 7% of U.S. employers make teleworking available to most employees. Larger companies are more likely to offer remote working options vs. smaller firms. Full-time workers are four times more likely to work remotely vs. part-time employees. Union workers are twice less likely to have access to telecommuting vs. non-union
Geography. The most growth by # of remote jobs available in the U.S: Chattanooga, TN (325% increase), Bremerton-Silverdale, WA (273%), and Youngstown, OH (246%). The Most remote friendly cities: Boulder, CO; Corvallis, OR and Raleigh, NC. The Least friendly remote cities: Corpus Christi, TX; Bloomington, IN, and Lafayette, LA
Employer`s financial impact. Annual cost savings = $11,000 per half-time telecommuter or $44 billion in savings if extrapolated across the existing work-at-home population
Environment: Telecommuters reduce greenhouse gas emissions by the equivalent of taking over 600,000 cars off the road for a year
Remote jobs search tips
- Upgrade your education: earn a Graduate Certificate, finish your Bachelor degree or consider going back for your Master Degree
- Contemplate roles in management, office, administrative, and sales occupations that together account for 43% of all telecommuting jobs
- Target full time, non-union positions in larger tech companies in following job categories that have 2-3 times more telecommuting workforce vs. regular employees:
- Computer, Technology and Informational Technology sectors
- Mathematical, military, art design, entertainment, sports, media
- Personal care and service industries
- Business and financial operations
- Reflect to seek employment in the following sectors:
- Professional, scientific and technical services
- Healthcare and social assistance
- Finance, real estate, and insurance
- Manufacturing
- Education services
- Look for and apply for jobs in the following locations:
- Chattanooga, TN
- Bremerton-Silverdale, WA
- Youngstown, OH (246%)
- Boulder, CO
- Corvallis, OR
- Raleigh, NC
- Have a conversation with your direct manager or human resources department about your options. Around 67% of telecommuting and flexible work programs are offered at a manager’s discretion so there may not be one equally implemented telecommuting policy at your place of employment
- Propose a telecommuting arrangement. Start small, perhaps one day per week, and offer a trial period to give your manager time to get used to the idea if they seem hesitant.
- Seek out a new employment opportunity with one of the thousands of companies that offer telecommuting options. (Credit: 2017 State of Telecommuting in the U.S. Employee Workforce)
Conclusion:
The truth is that there are remote jobs in every industry, every occupation, and every sector. The following series of posts will go over some of the fastest growing remote occupations and the top companies that hire remote workers. Hopefully, the information provided here helped you to gather more insights about this new format of working and will set you up for success should you decide to look for a remote job.
As you could tell, I am a big proponent of remote work; please read my post about many benefits of teleworking and remote jobs.
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