Six-figure jobs are on the rise. Here's where to find them.
Orlando Business Journal
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Listings for high-paying remote jobs are inching back up even as a growing number of companies require full-time office returns.
But the vast majority of six-figure roles are in-person jobs, and experts believe it will remain that way in the long term.
That's according to new data from Ladders Inc., a staffing and recruiting firm for high-paying jobs.
Overall, high-paying jobs — which Ladders defines as roles paying at least $100,000 — increased by 5.5% in the third quarter compared to the second quarter. More than 85% of advertised high-paying roles are in-office roles.
Ten percent of high-paying job opportunities were advertised as remote in the third quarter of 2024. That's up from what Ladders found in the second quarter.
High-paying hybrid job opportunities are also on the rise, according to Ladders, rebounding from lows of less than 1% earlier in the year and rising from 2.18% of the advertised jobs tracked by Ladders in the second quarter to 4.19% in the third quarter.
“This is the first time we’ve seen double-digit remote work availability since last year. It’s also the second consecutive quarter we’ve seen remote and hybrid work claw back ground,” said John Mullinix, director of growth marketing at Ladders. “Of course, we’re not anywhere near the soaring numbers we saw in the immediate aftermath of the pandemic, but the latest data proved the RTO fight isn’t over yet.”
As in previous quarters, health care professions saw gains amid an overall shortage of workers, with nurse practitioners, pharmacists and physicians among the 10 highest-paying jobs in Ladders' research.
Software engineers, project managers and program managers also made the top 10. That’s because companies across the country are ramping up digital-transformation efforts and embarking on other complex initiatives, such as embedding artificial intelligence into their operations.
“AI tools are increasingly capable of automating parts of the software-development process, such as code generation, debugging and testing,” Mullinix said. “This shift is reducing the need for as many entry-level or mid-level software engineers, especially for repetitive or routine tasks that AI can handle more efficiently.”
The companies that had most high-paying jobs available during the third quarter, according to Ladders, were:
The increase in remote and hybrid high-paying jobs comes after earlier Ladders research tracked an increase among ultra high-paying jobs — positions that pay more than $250,000 a year.
Over the last year, those jobs had shifted to being nearly entirely in the office, but Ladders found that hybrid jobs advertised at $250,000 or above on the site more than doubled in the second quarter — growing to 2.9% of all posted high-paying jobs, up from 0.9% in the first quarter of the year.
The Ladders research also found there are more opportunities for remote work for jobs paying $250,000 or more in “non-tech” fields than in tech-related industries. About 6% of jobs on the platform were remote in non-tech roles, compared to 2.8% for tech roles.
Workers still value remote, hybrid work
All this comes as remote work comes under fire from big corporations.
Among the more high-profile recent announcements, Amazon.com Inc. CEO Andy Jassy last month publicly called workers back to the office five days a week starting in 2025.
The increase in return-to-office mandates has impacted millions of workers, according to a study by on-demand space firm Gable Inc. alongside economists Nicholas Bloom, Jose Mario Barrero, Steven Davis and Liza Levin. More than half of workers surveyed (57%) said their company has announced at least one round of return-to-office mandates since 2020.
Among that pool, 38% said more than one round had been announced, and 6% said their company had been through five or more rounds of return-to-office mandates and policy changes.
Mixed signals on RTO trends
While office returns and shifting CEO sentiments are in the headlines, there are data points in addition to the Ladders research that show gains for remote work.
In August, 11.1% of workers were full-time remote workers, up from 10.3% in August 2023, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. People working part-time remotely rose from 9.2% to 11.7%. The share of workers who did not work remotely at all dropped from 80.5% to 77.2%.
Data from the Survey of Working Arrangements and Attitudes found remote and hybrid work has roughly stabilized at about 30% of the workforce, a percentage that's largely held steady since 2023.
And a survey from Gallup shows 53% of workers who are able to work in a hybrid setting do so — a share that also has remained consistent over the past year.
According to an analysis by videoconferencing firm Owl Labs Inc., 62% of workers are full-time in the office this year, down from 66% in 2023, and the share of fully remote workers is up to 11% from 7%.
CEOs want workers back in the office
Many business leaders would rather have workers in the office, in part because they believe it helps their profit margins, according to a survey by WeWork Inc. Research by the flexible-space provider found that 83% of business leaders surveyed said the office is more important than it was five years ago, and 86% believe it will be even more important over the next five years.
A majority of CEOs also believe full in-office companies see positive impacts on recruiting, retention and culture, according to the WeWork survey. More than three-quarters of the respondents said they are planning to increase their workspace in the next two years.
A separate survey from ResumeTemplates.com found 26% of companies have expanded their return-to-office requirements in 2024, 12% plan to do so by the end of the year, and another 9% expect to do so in 2025. Of those that have increased or plan to increase the number of days in the office for their employees, 34% are choosing five days a week.
The biggest reasons cited for the changes are for collaboration and improving employee oversight. However, 8% said the mandate is partly to force workers to quit in order to prevent layoffs.
Those results were similar to findings by human-resources firm BambooHR earlier this year. The company found in a survey that 18% of HR professionals surveyed were hoping for voluntary turnover during their return-to-work push.