Amid the COVID-19 crisis, many jobs have rapidly become work-from-home jobs at least temporarily. Job seekers have clearly responded to this change. Searches on Indeed for terms like ‘remote’, ‘work from home’ and related phrases have more than doubled as a share of all searches on Indeed since February. 

Interest in remote work surges as social distancing takes hold
A line graph titled “Interest in remote work surges as social distancing takes hold.” With a vertical axis ranging from 0% to 4.0%, Indeed tracked the searches for remote work keywords as a share of all job searches up to March 22, 2020. From early March, searches for remote work keywords as a share of all job searches rose to 3.5% from 1.5%. Caption added post-publication.

However, employers don’t appear to be reacting to the coronavirus by increasing the rate at which they advertise work from home or remote work opportunities yet. The share of job postings on Indeed that advertise these options has been steadily rising for the past year and that trend hasn’t changed much in recent weeks.  

obs advertising flexible working arrangements are up
A line graph titled “Jobs advertising flexible working arrangements are up.” With a vertical axis ranging from 2% to 3%, Indeed tracked the percent of job postings with terms like ‘work from home’ or ‘remote’ using a 7 day moving average, along a horizontal axis ranging from January 1 2019 to March 14, 2020. The share of job postings that advertise flexible working arrangements has steadily risen since mid 2019. Caption added post-publication.