Dive Brief:
- Web developers have the best chance of finding a job that allows for remote work, according to an analysis of more than six million Glassdoor job postings by software company Remote. Nearly 2 in 5 postings for web developers in the U.S. offered remote work, according to the report, which analyzed August data.
- Software engineers and data scientists had the second and third largest share of remote job openings, at 36% and 31% respectively. Cybersecurity and data analytics positions also ranked in the top 10 of all professions.
- Companies offered higher salaries for remote workers, on average, than for traditional workers, according to the analysis. The average salary for web developers who worked remotely was $95,000, 31% higher than the industry average of $72,492.
Dive Insight:
Salary disparities between remote jobs and the industry average reflect the bargaining power of top tech talent. Web developer, software engineering and data science positions listed as remote also had the highest salaries.
Across the board, IT professionals saw salaries rise last year, as employers struggled to recruit and retain needed talent.
In addition to upping compensation, employers were willing to consider other factors that contribute to job satisfaction, including more flexible employment arrangements that allow for remote and hybrid work.
The segment of the tech workforce that expressed a preference for remote grew to 60%, up from 53% in 2021, according to a November report by Dice, the tech workforce marketplace.
Nine in 10 respondents indicated the option to work remotely was an important job consideration, according to Dice, which surveyed 950 technologists and 350 HR professionals.
Demand for technologists remained high in the final months of 2022, despite high-profile layoffs at big tech companies like Amazon, Meta and Microsoft.
Tech-sector layoffs are different from tech-worker layoffs: 130,000 technologists got new jobs in December, according CompTIA’s analysis of U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data, and technology companies added 17,600 workers.
Unless demand flags, salaries are likely to remain high. Two-thirds of software developers got raises in the last year, according to a new report by CodinGame and CoderPad that surveyed 14,000 professionals in 131 countries. Developers who switched jobs reported salary bumps of 25% or more.
There’s a limit to how much employers can offer, even for the most sought-after web development, data science and cybersecurity skills. Sweetening the deal with job flexibility and other enticements is becoming the norm.
“Employers have to think about new facets of employee experience,” Seth Robinson, VP of industry research at CompTIA, said, including work/life balance, career pathways, training opportunities and remote work.
