Member Article

Data reveals extent of work-from-home growth during pandemic

The number of jobs advertised with ‘remote working’ options tripled during the pandemic, with particular spikes noted as Covid restrictions eased. That’s according to data from online talent sourcing specialist, Talent.com.

In its analysis of the rise of remote working trends, Talent.com reported a 199% increase in the number of work-from-home jobs being advertised from January 2020 to April 2021. While the data revealed there was an initial decline during the peak of the pandemic due to the drop in businesses actively recruiting, demand for remote workers spiked in line with the relaxation of Covid restrictions in the UK. September 2020, for example, saw an uptick in the number of work-from-home jobs advertised, up 10% month on month from August last year.

Job seeker interest in these vacancies has also risen throughout the course of the pandemic, with March 2021 reporting the highest number of clicks for jobs advertised with a work-from-home option in the last 12 months. This demand for remote working comes at a time when restrictions in the UK are continuing to be relaxed, highlighting that working from home will be the normal for many in a post-Covid world.

Noura Dadzie - VP Sales UK & International Markets at Talent.com commented on the findings:

“There’s no doubt that the pandemic has created an uptick in not only employer’s willingness to offer work from home employment choices, but also demand from talent pools for this option as well. However, the sheer scale of this change is evident in the increase we’ve seen in both jobs advertised with a work from home option and the rate of engagement with these. It’s interesting to note that while the number of current staff working remotely spiked during the first lockdown, it was only once the Government began to unveil plans to reopen the UK economy at the beginning of this year that we saw an increase in both new work-from-home job adverts and engagement with these from talent pools.

“As more companies start to adopt work from home policies on a permanent basis, it’s becoming clear the modern world is changing rapidly. The pandemic has played a big part in advancing and fast tracking this change, increasing both the supply of remote jobs and jobseekers’ demand between Q1 2020 and Q1 2021. We anticipate this trend to continue growing post pandemic into 2022.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Talent.com .