BOULDER, COLO. APRIL 22, 2019

For a variety of reasons, such as legal, taxes, and licensing issues, the vast majority of remote jobs require remote workers be based in a specific city, state, region, or country. To help job seekers identify which states have high potential for remote job opportunities in 2019, FlexJobs has named the top 15 states where companies recruited the most state-based remote workers in 2018, as well as the most popular remote career categories in each state.

California, Texas, and New York were the top three states with the highest number of remote job postings last year, with others such as North Carolina, Minnesota, and Massachusetts also included on this diverse list of states. Half-time remote workers gain back 11 days a year—time they would have otherwise spent commuting (the average daily commute is 26.1 minutes). In more than half of the top U.S. metro areas telecommuting exceeds public transportation as the commute option of choice. It has grown far faster than any other commute mode.

“According to a new report, between 2010 and 2017 16% of all white-collar jobs added to the economy have been filled by people primarily working from home,” said Sara Sutton, Founder and CEO of FlexJobs. “As this and other data demonstrates, remote work overall is absolutely on the rise – including the jobs that have a geographic requirement, but also the highly coveted remote jobs that can be done from any location,” Sutton concluded.

FlexJobs’ U.S. Remote Job Market Map also offers additional important state-specific remote work statistics, such as the remote worker population, top cities within states for the most remote workers, most popular remote career categories, the state’s average commute time, state-specific flexible work policies, and general national remote work facts.

The following 15 states had the highest number of remote job listings in 2018 and are high potential targets for job searchers in 2019. The top three most popular remote career categories in each state are also detailed below. Many of them are also included in GOBankingRate’s study of the top states to find jobs.

California: 

• Data Entry
• Legal
• Nonprofit & Philanthropy

Texas:

• Data Entry
• Accounting & Finance
• Software Development

New York:

• Data Entry
• Legal
• Accounting & Finance

Virginia:

• Data Entry
• Computer and IT
• Legal

Florida:

• Data Entry
• Legal
• Editing

Illinois:

• Graphic Design
• Data Entry
• Accounting & Finance

Pennsylvania:

• Data Entry
• Computer and IT
• Legal

Georgia: 

• Data Entry
• Accounting & Finance
• Computer and IT

North Carolina:

• Data Entry
• Nonprofit & Philanthropy
• Computer and IT

Massachusetts:

• Data Entry
• Computer and IT
• Accounting & Finance

Washington:

• Data Entry
• Graphic Design
• Editing

New Jersey:

• Data Entry
• Legal
• HR & Recruiting

Arizona:

• Nonprofit & Philanthropy
• HR & Recruiting
• Data Entry

Minnesota:

• Data Entry
• Accounting & Finance
• Engineering

Ohio:

• HR & Recruiting
• Data Entry
• Computer and IT