Remote and hybrid job postings have declined during the past year, with the largest dip seen in human resources roles, according to a June 28 report from Indeed Hiring Lab.
At the same time, job seeker interest in remote work has remained at an all-time high since early 2022.
“Job seekers continue to search for remote/hybrid roles at near-record levels, even as the share of postings overall that advertise flexible work arrangements has fallen lately,” Daniel Culbertson, an outreach economist at the Indeed Hiring Lab, wrote in the report.
“But that broad decline is masking notable growth in a number of fields as the market continues to cool and adjust to broader economic factors that are weighing on growth elsewhere,” he wrote.
Overall, the share of job postings for remote or hybrid work options dropped from a peak of 10.3% in February 2022 to 8.4% in May 2023. One of the major contributing factors seems to be the types of jobs where hiring has slowed, according to the report.
For instance, job postings have fallen the most among occupations that traditionally feature the most remote and hybrid opportunities, including typical corporate roles and software development/IT operations.
In general, however, remote work is rising in more job categories than it is falling, with 33 of 55 job categories seeing an increase and accounting for 49% of job postings on Indeed in May 2023. The largest jump was in civil engineering roles, where nearly a quarter of roles were remote or hybrid in May, up from about 17% a year ago. Other job categories with major increases included social science, chemical engineering, and banking and finance.
On the other hand, the largest declines were in general corporate roles, such as human resources, marketing, and media and communications. Human resources had the largest decline in remote or hybrid postings, dropping from 23.9% in May 2022 to 19.2% in May 2023.
“Employers may be feeling less pressure to offer remote work in some of these categories as related job postings have fallen substantially over the past year for many of these corporate-related roles,” Culbertson wrote.
As many employers call workers back into the workplace, some of the declines in remote positions for human resources could be voluntary as HR professionals try to demonstrate their value to leaders. HR workers need to take more strategic risks this year, according to sources, and some may feel they could benefit from in-person communication with leadership.
