Best and Worst Cities for Remote Workers | ACCUR Recruiting Services

A recent survey by Telstra Ventures looked at 371,000 jobs posted between April and June 30th of this year to find out what cities were most receptive to remote workers. The survey found that:

Across the nation, 14% of companies are willing to offer remote positions.
Columbus, Ohio seems to be the most remote-friendly headquarters for businesses, followed by San Diego, Phoenix, Saint Louis and San Francisco.
Houston is the least friendly to remote workers, with only around 3% of listed jobs open to remote workers

Considerations for Businesses Considering Creating Remote Positions

With many businesses contemplating unique office configurations and making more positions fully remote, it’s worth considering where your organization is in terms of how it sees remote workers. WordPress founder Mat Mullenweg has a good outline of distributed workforces.

Want more tips on creating a remote position? We have created a multi-part series to the key components of remote hiring including how to:

Where to Find Talented Workers

The pandemic has changed hugely disrupted the talent market for executives. Workers now want a much more flexible lifestyle and are choosing to live where they can enjoy the best quality of life. Others are becoming permanent migrants, changing locales seasonally or to try out a new city.

Top locations for high end talent:

New York: Despite the high cost of living, workers love living near the NYC market, including New Jersey, Long Island and Connecticut. New York is considered the headquarters of a number of industries including fashion, cosmetics, luxury retail, hospitality finance and real estate.

Los Angeles: This West Coast city boasts beaches, culture and a sprawling set of options as to where to live. In addition, there are a number of innovative companies setting up shop in the area, making it a top destination for young talent.

Miami: With the recent decision of the New York based organization Goldman Sachs to relocate to Miami, a number of other companies are eyeing the attractive quality of life in the city. In addition to being a center of international commerce and tourism and hospitality, the Southern Florida area is also a bastion of tech innovation.

Austin: The pandemic has made Austin a top destination for workers, both because of its burgeoning local tech scene as well as the cultural and culinary amenities nearby.

Where else are remote workers looking?

Apartment List did a survey in 2021 of 5,000 adults employed in the US to find out what cities were attractive to them if they knew they could work remotely. According to respondents, their most important considerations in selecting a city were “access to a housing market where I can afford homeownership” and “access to natural amenities.”

Survey respondents ranked their choices of cities thusly: