HN Explorer

Remote work statistics for April 2017

106 points by pieterhg ↗ HN
Hello HN. I see a lot of people here ask regularly what skills to learn to get a job they can do remotely. I aggregate remote jobs from the majority of job boards on my website. Here's a data dump I did today for you:

Top remote jobs (last 30 days)

    - JavaScript
    - Support
    - WordPress
    - PHP
    - Full Stack
    - WooCommerce
    - Ruby
    - React
    - Product Manager
    - Backend
    - Meteor JS
    - Machine Learning
Top remote jobs (last 90 days)

    - JavaScript
    - Ruby
    - Full Stack
    - Support
    - React
    - Product Manager
    - Meteor JS
    - Backend
    - PHP
    - Dev Ops
    - Marketing
    - WordPress
Fastest growing remote jobs (last 30 days)

    - Machine Learning
    - Laravel
    - Bootstrap
    - Node
    - Linux
Fastest dropping remote jobs (last 30 days)

    - Sales
    - Sys Admin
    - iOS
    - MongoDB
    - Android
The usual caveats apply, data scope is limited and there might be many more reasons for job categories to rise and fall outside of actually becoming more or less popular (for example, people hiring outside of job boards).

- @levelsio

(Source: Remote OK, https://remoteok.io/remote-work-statistics)

54 comments

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ramijames
I just want to say that I love working with Laravel and am glad to see it growing.
ed_balls
How come Xamarin tag exists, but there is no python?
[deleted]
(comment deleted)
santiagobasulto
Makes no sense. After a quick search on StackOverflow for remote jobs I see:

- 32 JS offers: http://stackoverflow.com/jobs?sort=i&l=Remote&d=20&u=Km&tl=j...

- 15 Python offers: http://stackoverflow.com/jobs?sort=i&l=Remote&d=20&u=Km&tl=p...

- 10 PHP offers: http://stackoverflow.com/jobs/developer-jobs-using-php-in-re...

- 8 Ruby offers: http://stackoverflow.com/jobs/developer-jobs-using-ruby-in-r...

pieterhg
Some jobs are reposted repeatedly, I don't count these as new jobs.
tmat
waits patiently for elixir jobs
sahrizv
waits restlessly for elixir jobs... :)

Seriously, left my decently paying Tech Lead job in Bangalore to take a break and work with Elixir/OTP.

Would be nice to see an upward trend in Elixir related remote jobs.

tmat
best thing those of us championing elixir can do is build apps in elixir that need to be maintained.. the more elixir apps in the wild, the more jobs we can create.

my studio is doing all of our greenfield backend work in elixir and we're all very happy with our current stack.

haven't been this happy since the early days of rails. elixir and react are a match made in heaven.

sahrizv
Agree that's a big way to create more jobs. Currently building for myself, hope to do it for others too in the long run.
veraxlabs
I'm thinking of experimenting with Elixir for my project. Ping me and we might be able to work something out. psl [at] veraxlabs [dot] com
sotojuan
With new-ish languages like these, the best thing to do is make your own job :-)
tmat
I was kidding that's what we're doing.. I run a studio focusing on elixir, react, and react native. we started as a ruby shop.
jetti
You and me both! I've seen one Elixir job in Chicago and it definitely wasn't remote. I would settle for non-remote Elixir biding time for remote jobs to be available.

For the time being, I'm doing my darnedest to try to make a product that could transition into a full time Elixir job for myself.

tmat
I love the excitement coming out of the elixir community.. it really shows. can't wait to see what you're working on.. phoenix app or something else? we do straight elixir / plug api with a separate node/react front end.. we also use json-api which has been nice to standardize or json structure.
jetti
For some "quick" money I'm doing a small Phoenix app that is doing CSV processing/formatting and is going to be an adsense page. I'm looking into doing a full blown Elixir/OTP app that handles X12 EDI parsing/validating but we shall see. I'm going to start writing the X12 parser soon and will at least open source that.

Edit: I would add I was able to talk a client into allowing me to write their platform in Phoenix and away from the Laravel. So I've been working on that as well.

tmat
nice! good luck...
jetti
Thanks, you too!
mlpinit
Do you have any tips for where to find open source X12 specifications? Seems like EDIFACT is nicer from this perspective.
jetti
Unfortunately ASC X12 is very good at keeping their docs hidden. I'm fortunate to be able to have the docs provided by work but when I didn't I would just search for the file type and spec (e.g "837 Spec") and would go off the companion guides. Companion guides from various companies are not a reliable to create a product though as they can deviate from the standard

EDIT: One place I forgot to look is Microsoft's BizTalk HIPAA information[0]. It has information about the various segments and how they are laid out.

[0] https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc982631(v=bts.10)....

dragonwriter
> Unfortunately ASC X12 is very good at keeping their docs hidden

They aren't hidden, they just aren't free, and the kinds of people paying for them aren't as likely to share them illegally as is the case with some other non-free content. (The 4010 versions of the standards were free [gratis, not libre] because the government paid X12 to make them available without charge to encourage adoption.)

> One place I forgot to look is Microsoft's BizTalk HIPAA information[0]. It has information about the various segments and how they are laid out.

Unless I'm missing something, it only seems to have info on the common envelope segments, not the segments making up the actual transaction set, and the information it does have is woefully incomplete.

jetti
You're right, they aren't hidden but not free. Hidden was a bad choice of words as they just aren't available without paying.

BizTalk and Websphere documenation on X12 is limited and mainly focuses around the envelopes (though I do believe there are other segments covered in BizTalk docs I just can't find them at the moment). If you don't have access to the specificiations then your only real options are BizTalk/Websphere/other tool docs + companion guides. It isn't going to get you far at all

dragonwriter
The full set of HIPAA mandated X12 standards is only $3,100, which isn't all that much. (Though, yeah, it would be much better if they were still gratis; but even when they were it wasn't exactly like the open-source community was jumping all over them.)

The bigger problem is that many of the external code sets referenced are also not-free-of-charge, and weren't even when the X12 standards were.

jetti
It isn't that much for a company but that is sure a large amount of money to start an open source project.
dragonwriter
> Do you have any tips for where to find open source X12 specifications?

They don't exist. X12 specs are proprietary, not open source.

pieterhg
Update: did a new data dump with a broader range of job boards, data is almost same but some tiny differences:

Top remote jobs (last 30 days)

    - JavaScript
    - Full Stack
    - React
    - Ruby
    - Support
    - PHP
    - Marketing
    - Product Manager
    - WordPress
    - Dev Ops
    - Backend
    - Meteor JS
Top remote jobs (last 90 days)

    - JavaScript
    - Ruby
    - Full Stack
    - Support
    - React
    - Product Manager
    - Meteor JS
    - Backend
    - PHP
    - Dev Ops
    - Marketing
    - WordPress
Fastest growing remote jobs (last 30 days)

    - Bootstrap
    - Machine Learning
    - Redux
    - Linux
    - Copywriting
    - Laravel
    - Admin
    - Customer Support
    - Node
    - Python
    - React Native
    - AWS
Fastest dropping remote jobs (last 30 days)

    - Rails
    - Mobile
    - Ruby on Rails
    - Postgres
    - CSS
    - Video
    - Social Media
    - iOS
    - Remote
    - MongoDB
    - Android
    - Ecommerce
(Source: Remote OK, https://remoteok.io/remote-work-statistics)
throwaway13337
These looks like they could just as well be stats for movement in non-remote work offers.

It might be useful to do a comparison.

Brajeshwar
The interesting thing with Remote is that most companies these days "allows remote" as part of their package. Not a statistical data but I can see it[1] more often these days, whilst looking at our internal tool[2] that we used to look for new interesting prospects for consulting.

1. https://www.dropbox.com/s/b937olnwswwkwlm/getbetterluck-2017...

2. We aggregate lots of well-known to lesser-known job boards for our internal consumption. Cleaning it up a bit. Will release it to public in about a month's time. https://getbetterluck.com/

P.S. If you're looking for a job either full-time, contract or freelance, you might like to try this. Ping me if you need very alpha test access now.

parennoob
> The interesting thing with Remote is that most companies these days "allows remote" as part of their package.

This question goes for the original post too -- but how many of these are truly remote? i.e. I can work for the majority of the year remotely, with maybe one or two visits to the company main office, if that.

Asking because I see far too many companies these days trying to brand themselves as remote-friendly, when they really mean something with far less freedom, like “We'll maybe allow you to work from home two days out of five”.

Brajeshwar
Well, when they mention "allows remote", it is mostly not remote (work anywhere, wherever you like, just get things done) from what I gather. This is from a British company in London, "because we love family, and are a family company, we will allow 2 days a week for you to work from anywhere." :-)
pythonaut_16
I think it's definitely a spectrum.

To me the most important binary distinction is whether it's "remote friendly" meaning you can work from home if you give an excuse, and remote friendly meaning it's expected that you'll be working remotely on a regular basis.

Once you're in that second category there's range from "work from home one to several days a week" and "never set foot in the office again"

pjmlp
I am in the same position.

Which makes me turn down most headhunter's offers as they think “We'll maybe allow you to work from home two days out of five” is good enough for home office.

Somehow they don't understand there are things more relevant than plain salary or having access to a company car.

pieterhg
These are almost explicitly positions where the location is marked as Remote. Only a few seep through which might say "Canadians only" for example.
freehunter
I left an employer a few years ago to take a remote work job. Hearing from some of the employees after I left, HR took that to mean I left because I didn't want to work in an office, and instituted a "work from home with manager approval" policy, where you can request WFH days and as long as your manager agrees, you can stay home. Of course it means you have to plan ahead to bring your laptop, and if you have a desktop you're stuck working over RDP, and the helpdesk/support guys aren't eligible. And of course this only applies to IT, which was like 20 people out of 2000 employees.

Still, it's a step in the right direction I guess?

sidlls
In that kind of situation the lack of an office presence is going to be a net negative in many if not most cases. The kind of small, in-house shop you describe tends to be governed very much by office politics and attracts a certain kind of manager who will very happily use the WFH policy as a cudgel as much as he will a carrot.
freehunter
You're spot-on. They actually used different working shifts as punishments. Technically we were only open 9-5 with limited support staff 24/7 for our website, but some employees had a hard time working and not socializing, so they were asked to come in at off-hours to disrupt the amount of time they shared with other workers. I imagine they're being asked to work from home now, so they have zero face-to-face interactions as another step towards getting them to quit.

We had some employees with a 1+hr commute one-way, so the policy was probably marketed as being nice to them, but I'll bet you're right and it's being used as a punishment for others.

maxxxxx
Damn. Nothing with C, C++ or C#.
kw0lf
I was thinking the same thought :-)
pjmlp
It is relatively easy to get C# remote positions specially for web applications (WPF and UWP not so much), the problem is with C and C++, as they are being pushed down the software stack.

So most C and C++ greenfield projects happen to require physical access to hardware that cannot leave the company premises.

sidlls
Most of the positions identified are in the "low pay webdev" category. I don't mean low pay in comparison with median incomes nation wide. I mean low pay in comparison with the industry. I wonder how many of those WordPress "jobs" are really $35/hr 6-month contracts or low fixed-rate projects, for example.
pieterhg
This is not cheap Upwork positions. This is companies payinf $200 to $400 for a single job post. Therefore salary is probably in the $2,000 to $5,000 range at least.

Remember many companies use WordPress as part of their website and it might be "part of" the stack.

sidlls
$2,000 to $5,000 per what increment of time? $35/hr is $70k/yr, or about $5800/month. (Numbers assume 2000 paid hours in a year.)
pieterhg
Good point. I have no data on this unfortunately.
gamebak
Interesting, how about adding them into a graph and show it on a weekly basis? I always wondered, plus if you could do something like avg salary and such... and evolution. Also to take in consideration the country and inflation over there, plays a big role.

What do you think about this?

pieterhg
I have them now in a graph per quarter (90 days), see https://remoteok.io/remote-work-statistics
gamebak
Can you add it percentual? I mean I can do the math, but I think it will be a lot more useful to see out of the total available remote jobs were it stands. Thanks!
pieterhg
Sure! I'll change that now. Check back in 5 mins.
27182818284
Really surprised to see how high up Meteor is on that list. As an early Meteor fan, it felt like its growth had stagnated over the last year or two.
cheriot
Keep in mind that it's data from only his site so it's got the noise of a small dataset.
pieterhg
Yep. This is an analysis on 1,950 remote jobs in the last 90 days. This is a somewhat representative sub set of most job boards remote jobs as I aggregate from there but it's indeed not the whole remote work market obviously.
Kiro
A lot of people will probably disagree with me but I'm not a fan of remote work and don't think it suits most companies.

So many employees like to slack and procrastinate. At all the companies I've been at people will instantly open Facebook, reddit or HN as soon as management can't see their screens. It's so easy to wing some BS at the daily stand-up that makes it look like you're productive. No-one really questions how long things take and even if it puts you in unnecessary crunches sometimes to catch up to some deadline you still do it.

Working from home is like haven for slackers. No-one can see your screen and you can do whatever you want. I'm sure there are people that are highly effective working from home but I think those are in minority.

emperorcezar
If management can't find a way to measure output, then having butts in seats isn't gonna fix that. That's a management problem.
jcadam
Clojure's gonna take off any day now, I just know it... any day....

I'm surprised I don't see Java (could be included in 'Backend', I suppose). As a JVM guy who's always wanted a remote gig I find your list depressing.

eip
I have been working remote for 8+ years doing JVM stuff. Lots of jobs that are not listed as being remote can usually be convinced to allow it.
leojg
Anybody knows the reason for the drop in mobile/android postings?

Less demand in general?