The Covid-19 pandemic devastated the entire global economy. Jobs and businesses were lost left, right, and center.  But the world adapted and shifted to remote work. Even though remote work existed before the pandemic, it really shined through after Covid-19. But how is remote work doing in Europe, almost two years after the WHO declared the novel virus an international public health emergency?

This article will dive into the remote work statistics specific to Europe. We will look at how remote work changed relative to COVID and the current state of remote work in European countries.

Remote Work Statistics Europe

Key Remote Work Statistics for Europe (2022)

• According to a report by Coresignal, a data and analytics services provider, the UK had the highest share of remote job opportunities in Europe by March 2022. Germany was close behind the UK in this regard.

• DW News published an article on Europe’s attitude toward remote work in 2022. According to the article, Bitkom, a digital association of thousands of companies, surveyed 600 German companies. They found that three out of four workers wanted to work remotely by November 2021.

• According to the same DW news article of 2022, SAP, a German software firm, allowed 100,000 employees worldwide to decide their working location and hours in the summer of 2021. More than 90% of workers regarded this positively.

• According to Eurostat, 12.3% of people aged between 15 and 64 were working remotely by May 2021. This shows a 140% increase compared to figures before the pandemic.

• There was a Hiring Lab study on the persistence of remote work after the pandemic. This study included data from a number of European countries like Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, and Ireland, among others. According to this study, from January 2020 to September 2021, the global job listings involving remote work tripled from 2.5% to 7.5%.

• According to an iFop study, while other European nations look at remote work favorably, France remains an outlier. 29% of French workers wanted to work remotely at least once a week in 2021. In comparison, 51% of British people and 50% of Italians did the same. So both British and Italian workers preferred remote work over 70% more than French workers.

• When the pandemic started, the most significant percentage increase in remote job post views in European countries on LinkedIn was in Spain (213%). This is according to data by LinkedIn Talent Solutions.

• According to the same source, the United Kingdom had the highest increase in remote job posts among all European countries for remote work applications (277%).

Which Countries in Europe Have the Most Remote Jobs?

Coresignal, an entity providing analytical and data services to corporations, published a report on remote job trends in Europe and the US. The report’s data spanned from October 2020 to March 2022 and included over 40 million job posts.

According to the report, the United Kingdom accounted for about 30% of all European remote job opportunities. This made it the leader in this regard in Europe. It still retained this lead at around 20% share of the same by March 2022. Germany was close behind by this time, closing the rather large gap between itself and the UK in 2021.

On the other end of the spectrum, France has been an outlier in Europe in this regard. It had the least share of remote workers (around 2-3%).

In May 2021, the World Economic Forum published an article in collaboration with Statistica. The article was a part of a job reset summit in Switzerland in June 2021. According to the article:

• At 25.1%, Finland had the highest share of remote workers among all European countries.
• Luxembourg and Ireland both had a share of over 20% of remote workers in their workforces by this time. 

It is also worth mentioning that LinkedIn’s Talent Solutions published an article at the start of the pandemic to analyze the changes in remote work. The team used data from 1st March to 31st March 2020. Their findings included the following: 

• The highest increase in job postings on LinkedIn was by employers in Spain, with a 282% increase. Second came the UK with a 272% increase, followed by the Netherlands, where there was an increase of 245%. 

• The most significant percentage increase in job posts viewed on LinkedIn was also in Spain at 213%, followed by the Netherlands at 174%. Italy had a 172% increase in job post viewers while Germany had the least at 133%. 

• The LinkedIn Talent Solutions team also analyzed the percentage increase in remote jobs application per country. The highest number of applicants who showed intention to work remotely was from the United Kingdom, with a 189% increase. Following the UK was Spain with 169%, the Netherlands with 148%, France with 91% and Germany with an 84% increase in job applicants.

What Percentage of Europe Is Working Remotely?

According to the same report from Coresignal mentioned above, Europe’s overall remote jobs share was around 9% around February 2022. This is down from a one-and-a-half-year peak, between October 2020 and March 2022, of around 20% four months ago in October 2021.  

In May 2022, BBC work-life published an article which mentioned several studies about remote work popularity in countries like the UK, Germany, Italy, France, etc. 

The author of the BBC work-life article used a Hiring Lab study on the persistence of remote work after the pandemic. The study was based on data from the OECD and Indeed. 

According to the study, in the almost one-and-a-half-year leading up to September 2021, the global job listings involving remote work tripled from 2.5% to 7.5% for countries like Ireland, Spain, and the UK. This was a 200% increase.

Furthermore, In October 2020, the Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute, which has been responsible for publishing open-access scientific journals since 1996, did a study on telework. The study aimed to explore the main determinants of remote work and where this was happening, mainly in Europe. 

The researchers of the MDPI study discovered that back in 2017, only 5% of the European Union working population worked at home regularly. Since the outbreak of COVID-19, this 5% increased to 37% of EU employees working from home by 2020. As you might have noticed in the studies above, this number came down quite a bit. This is because of the high peak we saw in the unprecedented COVID circumstances in late 2020.

What Type of Industries in Europe Have the Most Remote Jobs Available?

Job Flare is an employment services company, and a product of Criteria Corp. Criteria makes pre-employment testing accessible to businesses of all sizes across the globe.

Job Flare posted an article about the leading four industries for remote work in 2021. The industries mentioned in this article are active across different countries and regions, including Europe. According to the study:

1. Information technology is the most popular industry contributing to remote work. Jobs like cyber security analysis, software programming, and front-end/back-end development are the most suitable for remote work in this industry.

2. The second most popular industry is digital marketing, with jobs in content marketing, blog writing, and search engine optimization. 

3. Following digital marketing, we have the construction industry in third place. Although construction is mainly done on-site, its operations like designing, financing, and hiring contractors are done remotely.

4. The last place on Jobflare’s list are jobs related to customer care. However, customer care jobs are few and far between since companies require a small set of employees to help their customers.

Coresignal’s report, which we referred to above, also mentioned the industries with the largest share of remote jobs in 2021. According to the report, the following industries stood out when it comes to offering remote work opportunities:

1. IT and Services (22.1%)
2. Internet (18%)
3. Social Organization (16.4%)
4. Staffing and Recruiting (around 7.5%) 
5. Computer Software (around 6%)

There was also an interesting side note in the report about the size of companies most flexible in terms of remote work. They found that companies with 1001-5000 and 51-200 employees often tend to offer remote job opportunities.

The following data is gathered from the LinkedIn Talent Solutions analysis team, who collected the applications posted on their website from these countries. The analysis team took the data right around when the pandemic started.

France

In France, the highest growth in job applications came from Marketing Managers (246%). Legal officers (233%) got second, and marketing specialists (160%) came in third place. 

Only a minor increase in job applications on the LinkedIn platform came from data scientists (only 106%). So, data analysis and IT jobs were less likely to be available than marketing jobs in France.

United Kingdom

The increase in the job applications on LinkedIn for the United Kingdom was half what we saw in France. The highest rise in job applications was among heads of marketing (98%). The second-highest application was for data analysts (75%). The lowest increase was related to chief technology officers (64%).

Germany 

Top remote jobs in Germany were regarding customer support representatives, with a growth of 323% in 2020. Then came the technology-related jobs like Java software engineers, with a growth rate of 195% in applicants. The slightest increase in job applications was related to project management, only 85%.

What Are the Most In-Demand Remote Jobs in Europe and Their Salaries?

Wild Code School is a platform that provides intensive training and courses for the IT profession. In February 2022, they collected data from Statistica on the most in-demand jobs in Europe. According to their findings, the most paid remote jobs are as follows:

• Web Developers

Web developers will most likely be paid an average of € 45,411 annually. Due to COVID-19, many shop owners have moved their businesses to online markets. This is partly why web developers are in such high demand.

• Data Analysts

Data analysts are Europe’s most in-demand remote work professionals, following web developers. The average pay of a data analyst in Europe is € 59,454 per year. 

This type of job is in-demand because several European companies need to gather and analyze data. Data analysis allows company owners to understand user feedback regarding their products. This feedback is used to modify and fix the product or services to attract more customers.

•  Product Managers 

Next on the list, we have product manager jobs. These are considered the fastest-growing remote work jobs on the market. The average pay of a product manager in Europe is roughly around € 58,000 annually.

The primary role of this professional is to produce new products that sell quickly. Successful product managers require sound communication, collaboration, marketing skills and strategies.

• Financial Advisors

Financial advisors use their experience to guide people in making wise decisions. The average pay of a sound financial advisor is € 67,109 annually. This makes it the highest-paid job on our list. 

Since it is all about advising and providing information, professionals can easily do this job remotely. However, it requires skills, professional qualifications, and constant knowledge of the latest financial trends.

• Tutoring/ Educational Professions

Lastly, we would end this list with a relatively underrated job, the tutoring/ educational profession. The COVID-19 pandemic had a massive impact on education. Physical classes were out of the question.

However, apps like Skype and Zoom have allowed the process of education to continue. They have also helped teachers and tutors to maintain their jobs, just in a remote fashion, instead of physical classes. The average salary of a tutor is around € 50,000 per year in Europe.

Do European Employees Prefer Remote Work?

The BBC posted an article in which it mentioned some recent data it had gained from Indeed and LinkedIn about remote jobs.

According to the data, in March 2020, paid remote jobs attracted 1.8 times the share of British applicants than paid non-remote jobs. However, this figure increased to 2.6 times by March 2022. 

That is about a 45% increase. Note that this figure was likely even higher a few months ago in 2021 in accordance with the data.

The data also shows that employees prefer remote jobs more in countries like the UK. According to the same source, the demand (represented by online searches) for remote jobs had outstripped supply (represented by job posts) here.

While the supply had only risen by 329%, the demand had skyrocketed by almost 800% between January 2020 and March 2022. The same pattern holds for other European countries like Italy, Germany and France. However, France, in particular, remains somewhat of an outlier in this regard.

Furthermore, there was an Ifop study done for Jean-Jaures (a French think tank foundation). The study found that only 29% of the French workers wanted to work remotely at least once a week in 2021. This is compared to 51% of Germans, 50% of Italians, 42% of Brits, and 36% of Spaniards who shared the same opinion. 

There was also a study specific to Germany. In November 2021, Bitkom surveyed 600 German companies, finding that three out of four workers wanted remote work even after the pandemic. 

So overall, European employees do prefer remote work by a significant margin compared to traditional office work.

Do European Employers Prefer Remote Work?

Employers can have some concerns about remote work. One of these concerns is employee productivity.

According to the 2021 State of Remote Work report by Owl Labs, 90% of employees who worked remotely during the pandemic reported that they were either as productive or even more productive when compared to working in the office. 84% of employees also said that working remotely after the pandemic would make them happier. Many were even willing to take a pay cut for this facility by their employers. 

A McKinsey survey further shows that 52% of UK staff have enjoyed a better work-life balance during lockdown thanks to remote work. And some research has shown that better work-life balance can breed productivity and have a major effect on the bottom line.

They also discovered that the extent of digitalization infrastructure significantly affects worker productivity in different parts of the world. For example, Chinese and Indian employees could spend between 12% and 22% of their time on remote work before significantly losing productivity. Whereas UK workers could spend between 33% to 46% before a decrease in productivity can be seen. 

A DW article written in 2021 about working from home discussed how many European employees and employers are shifting to remote work. According to the article, SAP, a software giant, sent emails to around 100,000 employees on 1st June 2021, where the email promised a 100% flexible workplace as the norm. In reply to this email survey by employees, 94% of workers supported the move. 

To sum it up, it’s pretty obvious that employees want remote work. There are also some benefits in it for employers. However, according to the Coresignal report mentioned above and experts from LinkedIn, European employers seem like they are not as partial to remote work as employees are.

Will Remote Work Persist in Europe After COVID-19?

The acceptance of remote work worldwide shows that working from home will persist after COVID-19 in Europe. However, it looks like the tide is turning. The trend of remote jobs seems like it is reversing in Summer 2022 compared to its peak in the middle of the pandemic.

In 2020, Consultancy wrote an article on how one-third of the workforce in Europe will be under the influence of remote work. The authors of this article used the studies done by McKinsey and Co. in 2020. The data was drawn from 2,000 tasks, 800 jobs, and nine countries, including France, Spain, Germany, U.S., India, and China. The study concluded that Europe’s economy would continue to rely on remote work even after the pandemic. 

However, according to the report by Coresignal we have referred to above, the rise in the abundance of remote jobs is falling. As we mentioned above, Summer 2022 figures have come down compared to peak figures in Winter 2021. 

A BBC article on this question also buttresses this trend with inputs from leading figures at LinkedIn. It also mentioned that remote job posts have gone down in the months leading up to March 2022.

Conclusion

To sum it up, countries like the UK, Spain, Germany and Finland seem like the best countries for remote workers. However, the overall percentage of European workers in remote jobs has gone down since its peak levels mid-pandemic and in Winter 2021. The IT industry seems like it is thriving in the rising trend of remote work. Overall, employees in many industries seem like they are at least somewhat partial to remote work. But as the effects of the pandemic wane, it seems like the trend of remote jobs will also go down. That is not to say that remote jobs will disappear. Rather, they will integrate themselves into a new mix we will come to know as the new normal in Europe.