Last month, we reported that remote job openings are on a massive growth path — an increase of 151% — since 2018. For 763 of the world's largest employers, we found that job listings with the term "remote" in their titles increased from 529 in January 2018 to 1,330 by the end of March 2019.

But what we didn't look at is perhaps more telling: the growth of remote jobs as an overall percentage of total job openings. Assuming overall growth in overall job listings, a similar growth in remote job listings wouldn't be terribly interesting. As it turns out, the percentage of remote jobs is on a growth path.

At the end of 2015, remote job listings accounted for roughly 0.02% of all openings. As of May 2019, that percentage has grown to 0.15%. While those percentages may be small, what we're seeing here is a real trend toward major companies opening jobs for remote workers. A trendline analysis (exponential) shows an acceleration.

The overall trend also reveals an interesting phase in the summer of 2016 where employers went on a bit of a hiring spree for remote workers. Or, conversely, it was a period when overall job hiring was up. We can tease that out by looking at overall job openings below.

Indeed, at the time in question, overall jobs didn't see a massive spike and subsequent correction, indicating that in 2016, remote workers had a good summer.

The types of companies hiring remote workers tend to be in the technology and health sectors, where working from home — or on the road — is increasingly common. Dell ($DVMT) tops the list followed by Anthem Health ($ANTM) for total number of remote job listings over time.

Company

Remote Listings

Dell

36,590

Anthem Health

31,205

Guidewire Software

24,893

Novartis

21,226

Tenet Healthcare

12,822

Molina Healthcare

9,338

General Dynamics

5,224

Abbott Laboratories

4,844

Red Hat Software

4,833

Veeva Systems

4,577

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