Richmond among top cities for remote workers
Add Axios as your preferred source to
see more of our stories on Google.
Illustration: Eniola Odetunde/Axios
Richmond workers had one of the biggest surges in remote workers over the last decade, according to a recent report from CoworkingMag.
Why it matters: Remote work may be waning compared to its pandemic peak, but it's still how a large swath of RVA's working-age population does its job.
By the numbers: Around 110,000 metro Richmond workers, or 16.6% of local employees, worked remotely in 2023, per CoworkingMag's analysis of data from the U.S. Census Bureau's American Community Survey.
- That's a higher rate than the national average (13.8%) and makes Richmond the No. 11 city for remote workers out of the 109 metro areas CoworkingMag analyzed.
- It's also a nearly 300% increase over the share of workers who said they teleworked a decade ago.
- Austin has the nation's highest rate of remote workers at 24.5%, followed by Raleigh, 24.5%, Denver, 22.3% and D.C., 21.9%.
Zoom in: The typical Richmond remote worker tends to be a college-educated millennial working in professional and business services — and, by a large margin, a woman, the magazine found.
- 55.3% of local remote workers are women, compared to 44.7% who are men.
- Millennials account for just over 40% of these workers, followed by Gen-X at 37%.
- Just under 30% work in professional and business services, the highest category, followed by 21% in finance or banking.
Plus, Richmond remote workers have a median income of $75,000, significantly higher than the metro's $46,368 per capita income, while nearly half — 46% — make more than $75k.
Zoom out: In 2023, there were more than 22 million remote workers in the U.S., a number that's tripled throughout the last decade, CoworkingMag wrote.
Yes, but: 2021 seems to be the peak for remote work, nationally and here at home. That year, 17.9% of the nation's workforce and 23% of metro Richmond were teleworking.
- And a separate study out this week from job site Indeed found remote and hybrid job postings have been steadily declining post-pandemic.
- The drop is especially pronounced in job sectors that traditionally embraced remote work, like IT, tech and accounting, Indeed found.
What we're watching: Now we'll just have to wait and see if a decline in new remote job postings means the plethora of Richmond remote workers stay put in their current roles.