Remote Working Is Creating Economic Opportunity For Small Cities

Analysis of LinkedIn’s Economic Graph team reveals that smaller cities are reaping the benefits of the growing number of remote workers.

The national rate for remote job applications on LinkedIn sits at 21.3%, with applicants likely to live in cities with less than 100,000 residents.

Among the most popular smaller cities whose residents were applying for remote jobs were Bend, Oregon; Asheville, North Carolina; and Wilmington, Delaware.

While this only offers a glimpse of all job listings in the country, it does highlight how the remote work population is altering the economy as a whole. 

Because people don’t necessarily have to move to high-cost areas for work, smaller cities may be seeing an economic boost. This comes from people either staying in their hometowns in the suburbs, or moving away from large cities for a lower cost of living.

Although it is still unclear whether smaller cities will see similar benefits from the workforce the same way gateway cities do, some evidence finds that this may be the case. 

For instance, after Vermont invested into a remote worker recruiting program in 2017, Bennington Regional Chamber’s executive director Matt Harrington said that he believes the program plays a large role for the area’s work-from-home economy as of 2020.