Employment listing giant Indeed recently published the results of its latest research and insight into the European labour market, finding that remote job postings are near highs in the United Kingdom.
At the same time, job searches for remote work seem to be on the decline. This may seem to be conflicting at first, but Indeed’s research suggests it has more to do with fluctuations in a specific job field — Information Technology (IT) — than about remote work itself.
Additionally, a separate study by global recruitment firm Randstad suggests the discrepancy between remote job postings and remote job searches reflects the labour force’s shifting attitude towards flexible forms of work.
Remote work “as popular as ever”
Remote work is as popular as ever across the United Kingdom. (Photo by Vlada Karpovich)
Of the top 6 European regions with the highest shares of remote job postings, the UK was ranked as second with 16.3% of job postings being for remote positions.
It was only surpassed by Spain, which had a 19.2% share of remote job postings. The other countries rounding out the top 6 included Germany (15.3%), France (10.3%), the Netherlands (8.7%) and Italy (10.4%).
“Remote work remains almost as popular as ever in most European countries, with both the share of postings mentioning remote/hybrid work potential and the share of searches directly seeking remote work opportunities staying at or near record highs,” Indeed summarised.
Why a decline in remote work searches?
Indeed noted that even though the percentage of searches related to remote work appears to be declining, it’s still “near historically high levels in most countries.”
In the UK, most people expect jobs to offer some form of flexible work. (Photo by Anri Lilkov on Pexels)
And this, it pointed out, is a reliable indicator of the sustained high interest European workers and jobseekers have in remote work in general.
Additionally, IT can “significantly influence remote work trends” because of the high percentage of jobs that are remote positions, Indeed said.
This means that when there’s a drop in IT job vacancies, as there has been in some parts of the world recently, job searches and postings can also fall.
Meanwhile, Randstad suggested that a major reason why job seekers may not be expressly searching for remote work as much as before is because most have now come to expect it as non-negotiable.
In the UK, for instance, where most people work in a hybrid format and the government is on the verge of passing its innovative Flex From 1st legislation, jobseekers can presume there will be some form of remote work offered.
As such, they would not feel the need to include search terms related to remote work when they are searching for their next job opportunity.
In fact, Randstad found most jobseekers won’t even consider applying for a job unless it offers remote work, showing that attitudes towards it have become far more standardised than before.
Find the latest remote jobs in the UK via RemoteWorker.co.uk.
