By examining flexibility within new job roles for UK employees in 2025, the ‘Remote-friendly Industries Study’ by sharetech platform Vestd has discovered that remote work is unevenly available across industries and that employers risk losing talent if they ignore what their workers want.
There has been increasing scrutiny over the last couple of years in relation to remote working, with many companies such as Amazon, Boots, and even the Civil Service ordering staff back to the office.
However, the research found that despite a mass push back to offices is at odds with workers' expectations, sparking fears that employees may quit in favour of employers offering flexibility.
The data highlighted that out of the 113,874 new job listings available, only 5,404 were listed as fully remote, reflecting a noticeable difference between available roles and stated preferences for remote work.
This also comes as an estimated 23.2 million Brits are reported to work from home at least part-time, with Vestd’s Workplace Values Study finding that flexibility is the second most important factor for jobseekers. Around one in six respondents even said that a lack of flexible options negatively impacts their work-life balance.
Moreover, there’s a stark comparison in searches for WFH positions, with Google Trends highlighting 91,000 searches for “UK remote jobs” in comparison to “Office jobs UK” (at 21,000) over the last year.
Remote work remains uneven across industries
Looking closer at specific sectors, the availability of remote work varies dramatically across industries, with some leading the way in flexible roles while others continue to offer very few options.
The data found that financial services offered the highest number of remote opportunities, with nearly a quarter of all new jobs being remote-friendly.
Leisure & tourism, insurance, sales and estate agency work made up the rest of the top five industries, each offering between 11 to 20% of roles remotely.
While certain sectors lead the way in offering flexibility, more hands-on industries, such as retail, manufacturing, motoring, social care, transport, and education, offer fewer than 1% of remote positions.
The UK’s most remote-friendly industries in 2025
|
Industry |
Number of job listings |
% of jobs listed as remote |
|
Financial Services |
4,390 |
24.62% |
|
Leisure & Tourism |
634 |
20.35% |
|
Insurance |
2,336 |
17.77% |
|
Sales |
4,607 |
13.63% |
|
Estate Agency |
2,529 |
11.47% |
|
IT & Telecoms |
7,338 |
10.68% |
|
Energy |
646 |
9.13% |
|
Charity & Voluntary |
611 |
7.69% |
|
Scientific |
402 |
6.22% |
|
Media |
658 |
5.78% |
|
Marketing & PR |
1,750 |
5.31% |
|
Legal |
6,323 |
4.84% |
|
Banking |
1,657 |
4.35% |
|
Administration |
4,668 |
4.20% |
|
Construction & Property |
6,340 |
4.10% |
|
Customer Service |
2,187 |
3.89% |
|
Recruitment Consultancy |
2,026 |
3.46% |
|
Health & Medicine |
2,184 |
3.02% |
|
HR |
2,241 |
2.95% |
|
Engineering |
9,903 |
2.93% |
|
Security & Safety |
459 |
2.61% |
|
Accountancy (Qualified) |
5,906 |
1.61% |
|
Hospitality & Catering |
1,990 |
1.41% |
|
Education |
17,679 |
0.85% |
|
Transport & Logistics |
8,365 |
0.65% |
|
Social Care |
6,176 |
0.62% |
|
Motoring and Automotive |
1,807 |
0.61% |
|
Manufacturing |
2,701 |
0.44% |
|
Retail |
5,361 |
0.07% |
Ifty Nasir, founder and CEO of Vestd, commented on the findings:
“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.”
