1How far remote job postings have fallen
LinkedIn data shows remote-tagged job postings peaked at approximately 20% of all postings in Q3 2022. By Q4 2024, that number had dropped to approximately 8–9%. That's a 55–60% decline in remote-tagged posting volume over 2 years, while total job posting volume stayed relatively stable.
The decline isn't uniform — it varies significantly by role type, industry, and company size. Targeting "remote" broadly produces worse results today than targeting remote opportunities in specific categories where remote is still common.
2Where remote is still available
Remote Availability by Category
Software engineering and DevOps
- Still 15–20% remote-tagged at IC levels. Infrastructure, security, backend engineering, and ML roles show the highest remote persistence. Frontend and full-stack are moderately lower.
- Fully distributed companies (Automattic, GitLab, HashiCorp, Cloudflare, and others) have maintained remote-first policies. These are worth specifically targeting if full remote is a hard requirement.
Content, copywriting, and technical writing
- Content roles show some of the highest remote persistence across all job categories — 18–25% remote-tagged in 2024. The nature of the work is asynchronous and output-based, which maps well to remote arrangements.
- Technical writing specifically shows strong remote availability, driven by demand from distributed engineering teams.
Sales (AE, SDR, Account Management)
- Down significantly from peak. Many sales roles that were remote in 2021–2022 now require in-office or hybrid for at least part of the week. Territory-based field sales was always mostly in-person.
- Inside sales and SDR roles at fully-remote companies (often SaaS) still show remote availability. But the category overall has pulled back more than engineering.
Finance, HR, and operations
- Finance and accounting roles at most companies have returned to office, particularly at VP+ level. HR business partner roles often require in-person. Operations roles are mostly hybrid at best.
- Remote availability in these categories is primarily at fully distributed companies — not at traditional employers who went remote during 2020–2021 and have since pulled back.
3The hybrid reality
"Hybrid" is not a standardized term. Across postings in the pipeline, hybrid definitions range from 1 day/week in-office to 4 days/week in-office with the fifth being "optional" remote. The modal hybrid arrangement in 2024 is 3 days in-office per week, which for most candidates is functionally in-office, not remote.
Before applying to a hybrid role, clarify the specific expectation during the recruiter screen. "What does hybrid mean for this role?" is a legitimate question and the answer tells you whether the role is actually compatible with your situation.
4Company size and remote availability
Companies under 50 employees show the highest remote availability (22% of postings remote-tagged). Companies between 50 and 500 show 10–12%. Enterprise companies (10,000+) show the lowest — around 5–7%, concentrated in specific departments and roles.
The practical implication: if full remote is a requirement, smaller and mid-sized companies (especially those that were remote-first before the pandemic) are more likely to have genuine remote openings than large enterprises whose return-to-office policies have been formalized.
Written by
Jesse Johnson
Founder, ShouldApply
Founder of ShouldApply. I write about job search strategy, hiring, and how to spend your time on opportunities that actually fit. Full bio →
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Frequently Asked Questions
No. It's contracting from the post-pandemic peak, not disappearing. Remote-first companies built around distributed teams (GitLab, Automattic, Buffer, Doist, and others) haven't reversed. The decline is concentrated at larger companies that adopted remote under necessity in 2020 and have since formalized return-to-office policies.
Yes, if it's a hard requirement. But also check company pages directly — some companies are remote-friendly but don't consistently tag postings as remote because their whole company is distributed. The location field in the JD ("Anywhere," "Remote," no city listed) is a more reliable signal than the remote tag alone.
Qualified candidates in lower cost-of-living areas have historically been paid below market on remote roles when location-adjusted comp was applied. That's changing — many companies now publish location-agnostic pay bands for remote roles. Confirm the comp structure during the screen: is it location-adjusted or flat-rate regardless of location?
GitLab, Automattic, Zapier, Doist, Buffer, InVision, Basecamp/37signals, HashiCorp (acquired by IBM but still largely remote), Cloudflare, Elastic. Most were remote-first before the pandemic and maintained it. The H-1B sponsors database includes company work arrangement data where available.
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