If you want a high paying job, remote work is now less of an option

According to the latest data from the careers website Ladders, the availability of remote positions with salaries exceeding $200,000 has seen a drastic reduction. The High Paying Jobs Competition Index, a report by Ladders, indicates that only 12 percent of such jobs are now available remotely, a steep decline from the 37 percent recorded in the third quarter of 2022. This trend is evident across both technology and non-technology sectors.

The report also highlights a decrease in hybrid jobs, which offer a combination of remote and in-person working. Advertisements for these roles have plummeted from nearly 16 percent to about 3 percent in the span of a year. The authors claims that, for those seeking the highest salaries, the current trend suggests that in-office work may be the more lucrative path.

The authors suggest that the highest paying jobs necessitate in-person attendance and often require advanced degrees. The medical field, in particular, dominates the list of top-paying roles, with doctors and dentists occupying six of the top twenty positions. Other notable professions in the high salary bracket include software engineers, as well as tax and legal professionals.

The report claims that competition for these lucrative positions is fierce, with marketing, media, and design roles attracting the highest number of applicants. Conversely, the healthcare sector experiences the least competition, reflecting a shortage of qualified professionals to fill these high-paying positions.

Despite the decline in remote opportunities for top earners, the World Economic Forum’s white paper, “The Rise of Global Digital Jobs,” identifies several high-paid digital jobs that are still increasingly available for remote work. These include software developers, finance and accounting professionals, lawyers, business operations specialists, insurance underwriters, and medical and health service managers.

The shift in remote work dynamics was a topic of discussion at this year’s annual meeting in Davos, where the balance between flexibility and productivity was examined. Allen Blue, LinkedIn co-founder, noted that while interest in remote work remains high, the platform has observed a decrease in fully remote job listings from 20 percent in April 2022 to 8 percent in December 2023.