Remote roles remain a small proportion of the labour market, according to analysis of UK job listings, despite growing interest from jobseekers who seek flexible working arrangements.
The Remote-friendly Industries Study from Vestd assessed flexibility across new UK job roles in 2025 and found that remote working remains unevenly distributed across sectors. Of the 113,874 new vacancies analysed, just 5,404, which is around 5%, were advertised as fully remote.
The findings come amid increased scrutiny of remote working policies, following moves by a number of large employers, including Amazon, Boots and the Civil Service, to require greater office attendance over the past two years.
Vestd’s research indicates that this shift does not fully align with worker preferences. Meanwhile, findings from its Workplace Values Study show that flexibility is the second most important factor for jobseekers. At the same time, around one in six respondents say a lack of flexible options hurts their work-life balance.
The study also notes that around 23.2 million people in the UK now work from home at least part-time. According to search data, there is continued interest in remote roles, with Google Trends recording around 91,000 searches for “UK remote jobs” over the last year, compared with 21,000 searches for “office jobs UK””.
However, the availability of remote working varies sharply by sector, according to Vestd. Financial services lead the way in flexibility, with almost a quarter of new roles advertised as remote, followed by leisure and tourism, insurance, sales, and estate agency, where between 11% and 20% of vacancies offer remote options.
In contrast, the report shows that operational and customer-facing sectors, including retail, manufacturing, motoring, social care, transport and education, offer fewer than 1% of roles on a fully remote basis.
Vestd founder and CEO Ifty Nasir says: “The research from our ‘Remote-friendly Industries Study’ shows a clear divide in job desirability within the market, with employees wanting more flexibility and freedom in their roles, while big organisations demand a somewhat ‘grand’ return to face-to-face office working.
“Those employers who take remote work seriously are gaining a real advantage. They can attract and keep hard-working staff by building teams based on collaborative and supportive work.
“On the other hand, organisations that ignore what their employees want only risk losing talent to competitors who will instead be offering the flexibility which many workers are now expecting.
“Remote working isn’t just a nice-to-have anymore – it’s becoming essential for people’s work-life balance and overall wellbeing.
“Giving people the freedom to work how and where they perform will help to benefit everyone. Companies that adapt to employees’ needs will be the ones that thrive in today’s fast-changing workplace.”
