We all know the rom-com trope, wherein our real love was standing right in front of us the whole time (think of a young Joseph Gordon-Levitt type for visual aid). It turns out, the same may be true for remote work jobs.
Sure, there might be a remote tech or finance position ready to whisk you off your feet, the standard but glamorous Patrick Dempsey figure in our rom-com metaphor. But there’s an unexpected, yet trusty Gordon-Levitt remote job waiting for all of us.
At least, according to FlexJobs. The job search site found the fastest growing fields for remote jobs by analyzing tens of thousands of jobs and comparing full-time remote jobs listed in the second half of 2021 to the first half of 2022. During this time frame, remote job listings overall increased by 22%.
FlexJobs removed the big wigs that often dominate the remote job listings—like accounting, marketing, project management, and IT—in order to find the industries that were adopting remote-friendly policies the quickest. They were left with eight career sectors whose full-time remote listings had grown by at least 45%:
- Event Planning
- Travel & Hospitality
- Nonprofit & Philanthropy
- Medical Research
- Communications
- Art & Creative
- News & Journalism
- Legal
Interestingly, classic service sectors like event planning and travel and hospitality hold the top two spots—a shift that signals remote work may be here to stay. However, the remote jobs in these industries likely don’t require much face-to-face interaction with customers, such as event managers and managers of business travel sales.
Since the pandemic began, many sectors were challenged to view work in a whole new light. The impact of our work from home trials have been long-lasting: Some studies have shown that productivity has actually increased when people work away from the office. While some people waste time virtually signaling that they’re being productive, a study from Stanford University found that remote workers are 9% more productive than in-office workers in 2022, an increase from 5% in 2020.
Managers and employees have had a push and pull when it comes to returning to the office. Fueled by the Great Resignation, employees that prefer flexible work have been able to leverage their workplace preferences over their bosses. Working from home remains everyone’s favored policy, with 87% of Americans working a flexible schedule when given the chance, per a McKinsey survey.
When looking to fulfill that desire, your best bet might be working in unexpected places.
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