LaTasha McCray has built a solid career over the past 14 years as a billing specialist for law firms and property companies — but it hasn’t been easy. Many of her early jobs involved stressful office situations, long commutes and tussles getting childcare lined up.

Everything is easier now.

Since December 2021, McCray has been working for a Houston law firm that invites her to get 100% of her work done remotely, at home. “It’s been life-changing for me,” she says. “I save money on childcare and gas. I can pick up my kids if school gets out early. And I got a merit raise in January.”

New LinkedIn data shows that among job applicants, the desire to work remotely has more than doubled the past two years, with women leading the way. That’s happening even though many employers’ willingness to offer remote work is waning.

As the chart above shows, women have consistently been applying for remote-work opportunities at a rate four to five percentage points higher than men’s engagement. 

One key reason for women’s higher apply rate involves the degree to which remote work can be more compatible with child care, elder care or other non-job responsibilities. Such obligations still fall predominantly on women's shoulders, even though many men have stepped up their contributions from the norms of prior generations.

“We need flexibility in this complicated world,” copy editor Anita Coryell wrote recently as part of a wide-ranging discussion on LinkedIn about the pros and cons of various work environments. Finding a remote-based job “allows women and men to stay in the workforce and still parent effectively,” she observed.

Also in the mix is the degree to which improved digital-connectivity tools make it easier to get  administrative and managerial work done without being in the office. Once-niche tools such as Zoom and Teams videoconferencing now are mainstream. Remote chat and file sharing has become far simpler, too, thanks to advances in data security and ease of use.

Who benefits? Many of the 36 million people working in professional services and related occupations, where women constitute 57% of the workforce, according to U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data. That includes roles where women constitute 70% or more of the workforce, such as bookkeepers, bill collectors, human resources specialists and public relations specialists, according to BLS data. 

A case in point is Meagan Glenn’s setup as a user-success specialist for Lavender.ai, which has built an automated email assistant for salespeople powered by artificial intelligence. She landed this role in November 2022, even though she’s in Virginia Beach, Va., while Lavender is based in New York City. With Lavender’s all-virtual focus, tapping into faraway talent via remote roles is both natural and obvious. 

As recently as a decade ago, choosing to work remotely often was regarded as a tacit decision to step away from the essential in-office contacts that help people win promotions or sizable raises. But that may be changing. 

This new ability to build a career track while working remotely is another likely factor driving women’s interest in remote jobs. Glenn, for example, started as a customer-service representative in the travel industry; her responsibilities and pay have advanced significantly since then. Her new credentials include certification as a Project Management Professional, which, she says, “helps you stand out.”

In Reno, Nev., Kiran Bhatia is working remotely as a user experience researcher for a major retailer. Her immediate manager is in Colorado; her 14-person team has colleagues across the United States. Merely looking at the roles that her remote-based colleagues hold is proof, to her, that it’s possible to rise to associate, lead and manager roles while still working remotely.

Another finding from the LinkedIn data: millennials and Gen Xers are the age cohorts most interested in remote jobs. (Millennials were born in the 1981-1996 time span; Gen X covers 1965 to 1980.) Baby boomers (born in 1946-1964) have slightly lower appetites for remote work.

Gen Z (born no earlier than 1997) have the least interest in remote jobs. Earlier studies have found that these career starters want the social energy of being in a shared workplace; they also may have the least comfortable work-from-home options. 

Methodology

This analysis looks at more than 5 million paid remote jobs applications per month  on LinkedIn from January 2021 through January 2023. A “remote job” is defined as one where either the job poster explicitly labeled it as “remote” or the job listing contained keywords such as “work from home.” Jobs are counted if they were open at least one day in a given month.

LinkedIn data scientist Caroline Liongosari contributed to this article.
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Source > LinkedIn