The best US metro areas for remote working in 2024
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By Kirstie McDermott
Remote work ruled during the pandemic––in fact 55% of Americans who could work at home did so in 2020.
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As the crisis abated, those figures changed, with Pew Research Center reporting last year that 43% of U.S. workers were remote as of January 2022, dropping to 35% in 2023.
Many companies have issued return to office mandates over the past couple of years, including Amazon, Citigroup and Meta, but most aren’t requiring their employees to be there five days a week.
A Gallup study found that 50% of employees are working hybrid, 33% are working exclusively remotely and only 20% are entirely on-site. The dominant workplace trend is clearly a hybrid schedule, offering employees a mix of at home and in-office working, with two or three days on-site and one or two at home, for example.
But hybrid work doesn’t suit everyone. Notably, it’s less preferential for women, who often share more of the burden of care responsibilities for children and family outside of work, and it can also be difficult for those with neurodiversity or disabilities.
Others point out that if they do a “remote-capable job” that can be done from home––for example, software engineering––then why should they have to be in the office at all?
Remote-friendly working locations
If that’s you, then you may be interested to find out which U.S. locations are the most remote-friendly.
A new study has identified the locations which are the best for remote working using a remote working suitability index, which combines a range of data, including the percentage of people who work from home, monthly expenditures on phone services, the percentage of people with a broadband internet subscription, the average monthly housing cost, the average travel time to work, and the average monthly fiber connection cost.
Boulder, Colorado, emerged in the top spot with a score of 77. In its favor is strong broadband infrastructure, however the city has high housing costs.
The Raleigh-Cary metro area, in North Carolina, is the second best suited for remote working in America. It scored 73.4, which is just ahead of the location in third place.
That’s the Austin-Round Rock-Georgetown metro area, Texas, which scored a respectable 71.2 out of 100, as it too has a high monthly housing cost.
Also coming in with strong showings for remote workers are Bend, Oregon (70.9), Punta Gorda, Florida and Corvallis, Oregon (both at 70.5), Fort Collins, Colorado (70.4) and Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro – Oregon-Washington (69.9).
The Durham-Chapel Hill metro area covering North Carolina and South Carolina scores 69.7, and the top performing metros for remote workers is rounded out by Ithaca, New York, on 69.2.
When it comes to the worst places to work remotely in the United States, then those who want real flexibility might look to avoid Fairbanks, Alaska; Huntington-Ashland, West Virginia, and Great Falls, Montana.
Ready to look for a new remote role now? The BGR Job Board is the ideal place to focus your search as it features thousands of roles in companies that are actively hiring, such as the three below.
Associate Principal, Server Administration, Options Clearing Corporation, Chicago
OCC is seeking a Windows Server Engineer to administer and enhance its Windows server infrastructure bot on-premises, and in the cloud. Hybrid is on offer and you’ll need prior experience designing, supporting and administering Windows server environments, and should have hands-on experience working in cloud environments, preferably AWS. You will also need to have excellent people skills, plus strong analytical and technical skills for troubleshooting complex issues. If you have seven or more years’ of Windows Server installation, operations, administration, and maintenance of physical and virtualized servers in an enterprise environment, apply now.
Software Developer (Contract), DataAnnotation, Remote
DataAnnotation is looking for proficient Software Developers on a contract basis to train AI chatbots to code. You will work with the chatbots in order to measure their progress, as well as write and evaluate code. In this role, you will need to be proficient in at least one programming language and able to solve coding problems (think LeetCode, HackerRank, etc). For each coding problem, you must be able to explain how your solution solves the problem. Work can be done remotely on a full-time or part-time basis and you’ll be able to choose which projects you want to work on, to your own schedule. See all the details here.
Geospatial Data Engineer, Envision, LLC, Remote
As the Data Engineer at Envision, you will participate in the building of large-scale image data processing systems and APIs and will leverage common image and geodata formats to work with the latest open-source technologies. You’ll be able to embrace the challenge of dealing with terabytes or even petabytes of data daily in a high-throughput API/microservice ecosystem, and will understand how to apply technologies to solve complex problems that bring value to new and existing data processing pipelines. A BSc degree in geo-science, image science, computer science, engineering, or physics is required, as well as at least three years’ of experience with the Python development language. See all the requirements now.
Whether it’s remote, hybrid or in-office, discover your next great tech job on the BGR Job Board
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