95% increase in working-from-home jobs

The Purpose Bureau report found that online job advertisements offering temporary and permanent work-from-home arrangements (WFH) in Australia increased by 95 per cent from March to December 2021.

The research was carried out by Purpose Bureau, which used proprietary algorithms to track the online hiring activity of every business in Australia on 2.4 million Australian businesses.

Although WFH arrangements were used throughout the past 18 months as a temporary solution to ensure businesses could still maintain their operations, Purpose Bureau’s research suggested that they are more likely now to become a permanent fixture in many businesses, and a crucial employment offering.

The data for the report was collected from analysing Australian online hiring activity between 1 March and 31 December 2021.

It found not only the huge growth in WFH-friendly offerings but also that firms with above-average ratings from online employee reviews were 2.9 times more likely to offer WFH arrangements than firms with below-average reviews.

It also revealed that younger firms (zero to two years) were 41 per cent more likely to broadcast WFH ads compared to mature firms (five+ years) and that industries with the highest proportion of WFH ads were professional services, administrative and support services, and information media and telecommunications.

“As the WFH debate carries out across workplaces, boardrooms and BBQs, this research shows that WFH arrangements are being now accepted as a vital part of employment offering,” Purpose Bureau’s chief executive Nick Kamper said.

“The proportion of job ads that included a WFH provision has remained elevated even after the harshest restrictions were lifted in NSW and Victoria.

“While every workplace is different and there’s clearly benefits to in-person work for certain roles, our data suggests businesses need to address the possibility to WFH to stay in the race for top talent.”