As more business goes online, remote jobs abound

Looking for work-athome jobs? Businesses adapting to a post-COVID world are pushing demand for some remote jobs into the stratosphere.

If you can draw potential buyers to Shopify stores, handle paid advertising on Amazon or Google, or design restaurant menus, for example, you don’t need to go into an office to find work. Demand for these hot work-at-home jobs is growing at double- and tripledigit rates. That’s according to new research by Fiverr, an international freelance platform, on millions of customer searches conducted over the past six months.

“At the beginning of COVID, a lot of businesses had to reinvent themselves by going from offline to online,” says Natasha Shine-Zirket, business verticals group manager for Fiverr. “Now we are seeing all of these businesses trying to grow their online presence, while also gearing up their offline operations for the holidays.”

Work-at-home jobs

As a result, advertising, sales and marketing jobs are sizzling hot, says ShineZirket. There’s been a 247% increase in companies looking for Shopify promotion experts, for example. Searches for people who can launch Facebook promotions have soared 174%.

There’s also continued demand for freelancers who can help companies go online and promote themselves there. Searches for front-end web developers, YouTube editors, social media experts and smartphone app developers have also soared.

The fastest-growing remote work categories for U.S. freelancers involve trademarks, customer service and making real estate videos.

Trendsplaining

There’s almost always a hike in demand for customer service representatives before the holidays, says Kim Garstein, senior vice president of international staffing company Robert Half.

However, COVID plays an important role. Many home buyers are still uncomfortable touring homes in person, for example. Thus, real estate brokers increasingly offer virtual home tours.

And, while restaurants are largely open for in-person dining again, many have shifted to digital menus. Of course, it’s tough to view a poster-sized menu on a 6-inch smartphone screen. So many restaurants are redesigning their bills of fare to improve the digital experience.

Meanwhile, demand for remote accountants, administrators, tech experts, writers, human resource managers and experts in healthcare, project management and education is also strong, according to FlexJobs, a curated job board for remote work. Demographic trends explain part of this. After all, the massive baby boom generation has largely hit retirement age, resulting in a shortage of experienced workers across the labor force.

But the pandemic, which closed schools and left parents scrambling for child care, made the labor shortage worse. And many schools still regularly test children for the coronavirus and shut down at the first sign of infection. As a result, some families with young children have opted to at least temporarily forgo two full-time incomes. One parent scales back to parttime or contract work to address the still unsettled nature of public education.

Where to find jobs

As always, the best places to find work depend on what you want to do.

If you’re looking for remote project work, Fiverr is a good choice. The site supports 500 job categories, such as social media management, website development and digital marketing. Freelancers set their own rates here. But prices are generally calculated by the project, not the hour. As a result, it’s imperative to be specific about what is and is not included in the listed package.

If you’re doing website development, for example, you might offer a three-page site for $150; a five-page site for $250 and a 10-page site for $500.

You can — and should — specify whether animation and interactive elements are included or extra.

Hourly work

If you prefer to offer services by the hour, good sites for technology workers include Braintrust, Catalant, FreeUp and TopTal.

Advertising and marketing experts can also find work-at-home positions through WorkingNotWorking, Creatively and FlexJobs.

The best sites to find accounting work include Robert Half and AccountingDept.com.

Work-at-home administrative jobs can be found through Belay, Boldly and Time Etc.

Sites specializing in connecting remote experts in human resource include WAHVE, FairyGodBoss and FlexProfessionals.