The IT Nerd

According to FlexJobs’ 8th annual survey of more than 7,300 respondents, 30% of workers have reported leaving a job because it did not offer flexible work options. Sixteen percent are currently looking for a new job specifically because of work flexibility issues. With this insight, it’s not surprising that 80% also said they would be more loyal to their employers if they had flexible work options. More than half (52%) of workers have tried to negotiate flexible work arrangements with their employer.

Key Findings Regarding Employee Productivity:

• 65% of workers think they would be more productive working from home than working in a traditional office environment
• Fewer distractions (74%), fewer interruptions from colleagues (72%), reduced stress from commuting (70%), and minimal office politics (64%) are the top reasons people prefer their home office.

• Only 8% would choose to go to the office during traditional office hours when they need to optimize their productivity

Interest in Remote Work is High:

• 71% have telecommuted in a job before
• Of those who telecommuted in 2018, 19% telecommuted more this year than last year
• 82% of respondents know someone who telecommutes
• 100% telecommuting is the most in-demand type of flexible work arrangement (76%), followed by flexible schedules (72%), part-time (46%), and freelance (39%)
• Less than 5% worry a lot that a flexible work arrangement will hurt their career progression

About Today’s Flexible Job Seeker:

• Wanting to travel (54%) is the primary reason for working, after paying for basic necessities (75%) and saving for retirement (60%)
• Work-life balance and salary (73%) tied as the top two factors people consider when evaluating job prospects
• Since 2013, work-life balance (75%), family (45%), time savings (42%), and commute stress (41%) have been the top four reported reasons people seek flexible work
• Flexible job seekers are educated, with 69% having at least a bachelor’s degree and 28% having a graduate degree
• They are also experienced in their career, with only 13% entry-level
• A range of audiences are interested in flexibility, such as working parents, entrepreneurs, people living in rural areas, introverts, caregivers, military spouses, and more

Health and Happiness:

• 44% said a job with flexibility would have a huge improvement on their overall quality of life and 53% said it would have a positive impact
• 78% said having a flexible job would allow them to be healthier (eat better, exercise more, etc.)
• 86% said they’d be less stressed if they had a flexible job

For the full list of survey findings, conducted in July 2019, please visit https://www.flexjobs.com/blog/post/survey-flexible-work-job-choices

According to a FlexJobs survey of more than 800 freelancers, aside from work-life balance and freedom, the top factors that compel people to freelance are the desire to choose when (62%) and where they work (55%). Eighty-five percent of freelancers report that they work from their home office. To demonstrate the various opportunities in the remote freelance job marketplace, FlexJobs has identified the top 25 companies hiring remote freelancers so far in 2019. This list is based on an analysis of over 51,000 companies and their remote freelance job posting histories in FlexJobs’ database between January 1 and April 30, 2019.

Below are the top 10 companies, ordered from greatest to least, for the number of remote freelance job postings during the first four months of 2019. Education, insurance, computer/IT and healthcare are among the industries represented on this list. Many of the companies featured on this list are staffing agencies and hire for a variety of positions.

1. Robert Half
2. VocoVision
3. CyraCom
4. AFIRM
5. Landi English
6. Apex Systems
7. EXL
8. GreatAuPair
9. Syndicate Claims Services
10. Aquent

To demonstrate the variety of remote freelancer job opportunities currently available, below are 10 recent job listings that were active as of May 6, 2019.

1. Accountant
2. EVP of Social Media and Digital Strategies
3. Law Enforcement Transcriber
4. Managing Editor
5. Online ESL Teacher
6. Project Coordinator
7. Senior Cyber Security Specialist
8. Senior Software Engineer
9. Speech Language Pathologist
10. Video Production Manager

For the full list of 25 companies please visit https://www.flexjobs.com/blog/post/top-companies-hiring-remote-freelance-job-listings/

FlexJobs has released new insights from its Sept/Oct 2018 survey, which gathered responses from over 500 digital nomads about key topics related to their digital nomad career, lifestyle and workstyle. Based on this survey, the profile of the average digital nomad is a married female Gen Xer who is an experienced employee working at a company at least 40 hrs a week in the writing, education and training, or administrative career fields. She has health insurance, is saving for retirement, and has a bachelor’s degree or higher.

Interesting highlights include: Visit https://www.flexjobs.com/blog/post/flexjobs-digital-nomad-survey-insights-remote-lifestyle/ for the full report.

• Only 27% of respondents identified as Gen Z or millennials, with 41% identifying as Gen Xers, and 32% as baby boomers or the silent generation.
• 61% of digital nomads are married and 39% are unmarried.  26% of digital nomads have children 18 and under.
• More digital nomads are employed by a company (35%) versus being freelancers (28%) or business owners (18%).
• 38% say they feel less stressed financially as a digital nomad and 34% say there is no difference in financial stress than when they worked a traditional job.
• Nearly one fifth (18%) report making six figures or more and 22% make between $50,000 and $99,999. The average U.S. worker today earns roughly $46,641 a year.
• 74% of digital nomads have health insurance and 55% are saving for retirement.
• The majority work from their hotel/hostel (46%), coffee shop or local dining establishment (45%). Less than one-fifth work in co-working spaces (19%).
• 31% of married digital nomads have spouses who travel with them full-time, 38% travel with them part-time, and 32% don’t travel with their digital nomad partner at all
• Only 6% have participated in travel programs for nomads, such as Remote Year or Hacker Paradise. Just 5% have used co-living spaces, such as Outsite or Nomad House

To help digital nomads and other job seekers interested in finding remote jobs that allow candidates to be based from anywhere in the world, FlexJobs has also compiled the Top 30 Companies Currently Hiring for Work-from-Anywhere Remote Jobs.This list is based on an analysis of remote job listings from over 50,000 companies in the FlexJobs database between Jan. 1, 2018 – Aug. 31, 2018. The companies on this list had the most job listings that met the following criteria:

• A “Work-from-Anywhere” remote job without location restrictions
• Fully remote jobs that don’t require any time in the office
• Offer either full-time or part-time schedules

Mental health counselor, full stack developer, sales operation specialist, and marketing designer are examples of work-from-anywhere jobs currently hiring.

And for a first-hand view of the digital nomad lifestyle, FlexJobs has partnered with Jason Byer who is currently traveling the U.S. with his family while maintaining his full-time job with crowdSPRING. With weekly videos and monthly blog posts, Jason provides a first-hand look at his digital nomad adventures, discussing various topics such as how to talk to your boss about becoming a nomad, how he structures his day, works from new locations, and finds time to explore.

Remote work continues to grow in popularity, with 38 percent of employees currently able to work from home at least one day a week. Remote work is increasingly embraced by companies in a wide range of industries and for an often surprising variety of roles. To identify key trends, FlexJobs, the leading job service for telecommuting and other flexible jobs, analyzed over 100,000 job listings from the past year to identify five of the top career categories where the number of remote job listings has increased significantly.  

Mortgage & Real Estate, HR & Recruiting, Accounting & Finance, Pharmaceutical, and Education & Training are among the career categories where remote job listings have grown more than 20 percent since January 2016. This high growth indicates they will be strong job categories for 2017 as well. A “remote job” is defined as a professional-level job that allows the worker to telecommute either entirely or part of the time.

As many as 80 to 90 percent of the workforce reporting they would like to telecommute at least part-time. Telecommuters are almost twice as likely to love their jobs than employees who work in traditional offices and report higher levels of productivity.

Five of the top job categories which have seen growth in remote job postings in the past year, as well as specific employers that are currently or have recently hired in this category, and examples of common job titles within the category are as follows:

Mortgage & Real Estate

Zillow, Homeward Residential and American Advisors Group have recently recruited for remote jobs in mortgage and real estate. Mortgage loan officer, underwriter and mortgage processor are some common remote job titles in this category. 

HR & Recruiting

Aon Hewitt, Xerox and IT Pros have recently recruited for remote jobs in HR & recruiting. Recruiter, human resources specialist, and human resources manager are some common remote job titles in this category.

Accounting & Finance

Wells Fargo, Citi, and Ally Financial have recently recruited for remote jobs in accounting & finance. Accountant, bookkeeper and auditor are some common remote job titles in this category.

Pharmaceutical

CVS Health, Thermo Fisher Scientific and Pharmaceutical Product Development have recently recruited for remote jobs in pharmaceutical. Pharmacist, clinical research associate and account manager are some common remote job titles in this category.

Education & Training

K12, Kaplan and Connections Education have recently recruited for remote jobs in education & training. Online tutor, adjunct faculty and virtual teacher are some common remote job titles in this category.

Earlier this year FlexJobs identified five of the top job categories where the number of flexible job postings has increased significantly. In January 2017 FlexJobs will release its 5th annual list of the top 100 companies hiring for remote jobs.

For more information, visit: https://www.flexjobs.com/blog/post/fastest-growing-remote-career-categories/.