Where should we expect to work in the years to come? A flurry of U.S. corporate leaders are arguing that the pandemic-era embrace of remote and hybrid setups has run its course. As they see things, it's time for a return to the office.

Yet a major slice of the U.S. workforce is pushing back. A new study by LinkedIn's Economic Graph research team identifies the 20 U.S. metropolitan areas where the appetite for remote or hybrid work is keenest. Findings are based on an analysis of more than 260 million U.S. job applications in the past year.

If remote work is top of mind for you, you'll find a stronghold of like-minded thinkers in Bend, Ore. In that community, remote-work opportunities attract 73.5% of job applications on LinkedIn.

As the chart above shows, Bend continues to rank No. 1 in remote-job enthusiasm among all U.S. metro areas with at least 100,000 residents. (It also claimed the top spot two years ago in a similar LinkedIn analysis of remote-job applications.) 

For more than a decade, Bend has welcomed digital nomads who enjoy the riverside community’s hiking, biking and kayaking options. During the pandemic, many engineers relocated to Bend from Silicon Valley and Seattle jobs. Some of those arrangements may be sunsetting, while the volume of available remote jobs has been shrinking.

Nonetheless, the latest data suggests that remote-minded workers in Bend and similar cities are dominating the job-application picture, applying widely in hopes of finding another work-from-anywhere employer. 

Three Carolina metros with vacation-level appeal also stand out as locations where 70% or more of job applications in the past year have been for remote positions.They are Asheville, N.C. (71.5%), Wilmington, N.C. (71.2%) and Myrtle Beach, S.C., with 70.3%.

The remainder of the remote-work top 10 list includes three inland metros well west of the Mississippi, starting with the Spokane-Coeur d’Alene cluster that straddles the Washington State and Idaho border. Also on that list are Medford-Grants Pass, Ore., and Sioux Falls, S.D. Two Florida metros and one Wisconsin one complete the list.

Who’s hunting hardest for hybrid work? LinkedIn data finds that this list is dominated by giant metros such as New York City and Boston, where hybrid opportunities are attracting 20% or more of all job applications. 

Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C., also crack the top 10 list, with hybrid-apply rates ranging from 17.7% to 19.6%.

Even so, four smaller metros crack the top-ten list, too, most of which involve cities with a strong university presence. This group includes Urbana-Champaign, Ill. (24.2%), Binghamton, N.Y. (19.9%), State College-DuBois, Pa. (19.7%) and Lafayette, Ind. (19.5%)

LinkedIn’s methodology excludes student applicants, to avoid having the data swamped by short-term, entry level positions. But college towns may also be havens for hybrid-friendly faculty and administrative jobs – as well as for non-campus, white-collar jobs, too.

For many urban or suburban employees, hybrid arrangements have come to be seen as the best of both worlds. The main benefits of onsite work – such as in-person brainstorming with colleagues, or being more visible to various bosses – can occur by spending two or three days a week on site, they believe. On other days, working from home can be more efficient and more compatible with life’s other priorities.

Even some once-dubious bosses have relented – a little. Among them is New York City mayor Eric Adams, who recently announced that some city workers would be allowed to work from home for two days a week.

A lot of people have come out of the pandemic wanting “a very holistic lifestyle,” says Rupie chief executive Austin Anderson, who runs a talent marketplace for game designers. Remote or hybrid jobs let them seamlessly blend a career with other commitments to family or outdoor life, he observes.

In Bend, where Anderson lives, a lot of newcomers in the past 10 years have been tech workers who brought their big-city jobs with them. But as the tech sector reshuffles talent and in some cases institutes layoffs, that may compel a lot of these tech immigrants to scramble for new remote or hybrid work.

Methodology
LinkedIn analyzed more than 201 million applications to paid remote job postings in the U.S.– and 67 million to hybrid jobs between May 2022 and May 2023. To be included, postings either were explicitly labeled as “remote” or “hybrid,” or contained keywords such as “work from home.” Only metros with a 12-month average population of 100,000 or more LinkedIn members were included. 

LinkedIn data scientist Danielle Kavanagh-Smith contributed to this report.

Source: LinkedIn News