UK vacancies for remote workers triple in a year: consultancy

[LONDON] Demand for remote workers in Britain tripled over the course of 2020 as businesses grew more willing to let staff work from home during the coronavirus pandemic, figures from a recruitment consultancy showed on Monday.

Some 80,700 jobs that allowed remote working were advertised in November, up from 26,600 in November 2019, recruiters New Street Consulting Group said, based on industry data provided by analysts Emsi.

Official data showed 547,000 job vacancies in Britain in the three months to November, down almost a third on a year earlier.

For now, it is unclear how many remote roles will return to being office-based once the pandemic is over.

"There has been a trend in recent years to invest more in the workplace, to make it somewhere where staff would want to spend time. It will be quite a revolution if that trend doesn't eventually reassert itself," said Natalie Douglass, a director at New Street Consulting Group.

"However, we are certainly going to see a more hybrid workforce with working from home an option for at least some of their staff," she added.

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REUTERS