Online searches for ‘work from home jobs’ have hit their highest point in five years, new research has revealed.
Experts at Financial-world have analysed Google Trends data to reveal the five-year high spike in searches, spiking by 123% this month alone. The increased interest in moving from in-office positions to those that are home-based comes amid strikes and the continuing cost-of-living crisis in the UK.
Google Trends data also reveals that searches for ‘hybrid roles’ are also at a five year high in the UK, exploding by 614% this month when comparing to December searches.
Coordinated industrial actions, namely train strikes, have been rife in the UK as living costs remain high and workers demand fairer pay. With no assurances that these train strikes will stop in the future, a work-from-home role becomes more enticing to workers who wish to save time and money on commuting.
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According to a recent survey reported on by The Guardian, 62.5% of 597 managers across the UK believe that working from home boosts motivation, and three-quarters believe that it increases productivity. Flexible working is becoming increasingly more widely accepted and this is reflected in online searches for such roles.
The volume of searches for ‘work from home jobs’ is estimated to be 72,000 per month in the UK. There are also currently 45,257 work-from-home jobs listed on the Indeed job site.
A spokesperson from Financial-world commented on the findings: “There is a clear demand for remote roles in the UK. The costs of commuting and the time spent doing so is proving to be a strain on many people's finances and a stressful situation to navigate among strike actions and spikes in fuel prices. Employers may have to consider welcoming more flexible work-from-home or hybrid workers to keep up with the demand and avoid losing employees. It will be interesting to see if more companies opt to offer flexible work conditions in the future.”
