American employees are interested in flexible work opportunities. According to a survey conducted by the Harris Poll on behalf of Yoh, a quarter (25%) of employed Americans said that if they were to consider a new job in the coming months they would be open to looking outside their geographical region if a remote opportunity was present.
The results reveal that many employers and employees have adjusted to the “new normal” of working from home or other non-traditional office settings, potentially changing the geographical boundaries of job seekers. Of the 1,000 working adults surveyed, 16% said they would only consider fully remote opportunities, while 13% said they would only consider fully in-person opportunities.
Age and income play a role in work preferences. Younger workers (19% of employed Americans ages 18-34) are more likely to consider fully remote work outside of their geographic area than older workers (2% of employed Americans ages 65+). Workers making between $75-99K were most likely (31%) to say they would consider remote work outside their geographical region, followed by workers making 100K+ (27%) and workers making less than $50K (17%).
Openness to remote work also varied by region:
- 30% of employees in the Northeast
- 26% of employees in the West
- 23% of employees in the South
- 20% of employees in the Midwest
In addition, married respondents (31%) were more likely than unmarried respondents (16%) to say they would only consider hybrid job opportunities.
According to Emmett McGrath, President of Yoh, these findings indicate that companies no longer need to limit candidate pools by location. “With this flexible workforce, employers can truly prioritize finding highly skilled candidates who are the best fit for the role and the company,” McGrath said.
