American workers are clamoring for remote jobs right now, but available positions are in short supply.
U.S. remote-job postings on LinkedIn dropped by 9% between January 2022 and December 2023, according to the company’s Global State of Remote and Hybrid Work report published earlier this month. And although remote jobs only accounted for 10% of open roles in December, they received 46% of all applications. That means that competition for remote jobs is nearly five times that of non-remote positions.
There are a few reasons for the remote-job pullback in 2023, LinkedIn senior economist Kory Kantenga told Fortune. Sectors that were offering more remote jobs, like finance, technology, and professional services, have been struck with layoffs and “economic headwinds.”
“These are the sectors that really allow a lot of remote work compared to others. And those sectors have been hit quite hard,” says Kantenga. “Their demand for labor has definitely gone down. They’ve had a correction from the pandemic recovery.”
Another important change is the transformation of jobs that were formerly remote into hybrid roles, as more and more managers try to get employees back into the office for at least part of the week. Business leaders including L’Oréal’s Nicolas Hieronimus, WebMD’s Bob Brisco, and JPMorgan Chase’s Jamie Dimon have not been shy about their dislike of work from home.
“We’re starting to see this inversion of remote to hybrid,” he says. “There’s still a fair amount of flexible work out there to be had, it’s just increasingly hybrid and less remote now.”
That transformation means that job seekers committed to strictly remote roles may have to go above and beyond this year to land a new job and beat out their competitors. And people who insist on only working from home may also have to leave their current sectors to do it.
“If you’re a software engineer, you’re previously working in a pure tech role doing software, maybe you ought to consider a different sector entirely,” says Kantenga.
It’s not just remote-job seekers who may have a harder time landing a new job this year. The job market as a whole will likely be more competitive, as power shifts away from workers and back to bosses. There was one job opening for every two applicants at the end of 2023, according to LinkedIn data—a stark change from the one-to-one ratio in 2022. This January also saw job seekers across the board make a big effort to find new work of any kind: The number of applications for U.S. jobs soared 50% compared to December.
“Competition overall is going up for all jobs, in part because there are just less jobs available,” he says. “But if you are looking for a remote or hybrid position, with even fewer positions available relative to all positions, it’s going to be much more competitive.”
