21 Statistics About Remote Work Trends In 2018

In 2018, the term “digital nomad” has garnered a lot of attention. Social media has created a fantasy of being able to travel the world while working remotely, and more or less have all of your dreams come true. But just how realistic is this image? According to an article from Silicon Republic, remote working will rival fixed office locations by 2025.

It’s not an all-or-nothing situation, however. While some companies do allow their employees to work from home full-time and have seen success with this model (Automattic has over 650 employees, but had to close its office in San Francisco because no one was showing up), others have completely banned the practice, like Yahoo! did in 2013.

Every company, and every employee, is different. Some find it much easier and less stressful to work from home, while others find it incredibly distracting. Still, remote work seems to overall be on the rise, particularly in certain industries such as tech.

  1. Regular work-at-home, among the non-self-employed population, has grown by 140% since 2005, nearly 10x faster than the rest of the workforce or the self-employed.
  2. An increase in remote work could help bridge the gender gap in the tech industry. 56% of women in the tech industry leave their jobs mid-career, and 51% of women say being a working mother made it difficult for them to advance in their careers.
  3. In fact, remote companies have four times as many female CEOs than non-remote companies.
  4. In 2016, Dell announced its plans to further expand its telecommuting and remote work initiatives, citing the $12 million in annual savings from reduced office space costs.
  5. Although several companies think an open-office plan encourages collaboration, most employees would prefer to work remotely.
  6. Because of the ever-advancing tech industry, skills are becoming more specialized. As new technological innovations such as artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics take hold, the vast majority (67 percent) of hiring managers agree that companies will need to invest in re-skilling to prepare workers for the jobs of tomorrow.
  7. There are five jobs available per one software developer. Listing a job as “remote optional” will help attract more applicants.
  8. When looking for a job, over 50% of developers said being able to work remotely was a priority.
  9. Of 44,008 respondents in a Stack Overflow survey, 35.1% said they work remotely at least a few days per month. 28.8% of respondents work from home more frequently than that. The highest job satisfaction was reported by developers who are completely, or almost completely remote.
  10. In 2017, Austin had over 60% of its tech job offers going to workers outside of Texas, while San Francisco had over 30% going to workers outside of the city.
  11. Austin software company Enola Labs conducted an ROI study and found that employees spent a cumulative 77 hours per day commuting.  Upon these findings and consensus from the team, leadership decided to allow the software development team to works nearly 100% remotely, enabling the company to hire the best talent, boost morale, and cut costs.
  12. 56% of startups worldwide have outsourced their work, contributing to the demand for remote workers.
  13. 74.92% of respondents from a 2018 State of Software Development Survey said remote work is already allowed at their company.
  14. In 2015, an estimated 300,000 full-time employees in computer science jobs worked from home in the US. Computer science employees are likely to spend much more time working from home than people in other fields.
  15. In 2016, 57% of employees in the computer/IT industry reported some time working remotely. Computer and IT employees rank just below the transportation industry in work-from-home frequency, at 61%.
  16. In the State of Remote Work in 2018 Report by Buffer, 43% of respondents said they only combine work and travel between 1% and 10% of the year. Most people surveyed were in the tech industry.
  17. 2 out of 3 respondents in a survey conducted by Polycom Inc said they are more productive working remotely than when they worked at an on-site office. 3 out of 4 respondents said working remotely helps them with work/life balance.
  18. At the end of 2017, Workfront CEO Alex Shootman predicted not just more remote workers, but holograms in the workplace. Only time will tell for this one.
  19. According to research by Gartner, organizations that embrace remote working will increase employee retention rates by 10%.
  20. In a 2017 study by IT solutions company Softchoice, 74% of 1,000 office workers surveyed said they would leave their job for another that offered the option of more remote work.
  21. According to a report by Workforce Futures, 83% of employees feel they do not need an office to be productive.

BrigedaBrigeda Hernandez is the Marketing Assistant at Enola Labs Software , a software development company based in Austin, TX. Brigeda enjoys writing about technology and its impact on business processes and everyday life.