Personal Finance

Remote jobs are exploding, and many pay over $100,000

Key Points
  • The lure of remote work is obvious. You can save on the costs of a formal work wardrobe, lunch out and commuting.
  • Till now, you might have been limited in your choice of jobs. Some fields had an increase of more than 50 percent more remote jobs in the past year, according to FlexJobs.
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If you dream of working remotely, you are not alone.

More than 4 million employees — slightly more than 3 percent of the entire U.S. workforce — work from home for at least half the time, according to Global Workplace Analytics, a telecommuting research site.

Some fields have more remote jobs than others. FlexJobs found that seven fields had high rates — more than 50 percent — of remote career opportunities over the last year.

Some of these rapidly growing career areas are somewhat surprising, since they aren't typically associated with remote work.

A "remote job" is defined as a professional-level job that allows the worker to work from home either entirely or part of the time. Other names for these types of gigs include telecommuting jobs, virtual jobs, at-home jobs and other similar names.

These categories have seen high remote-job growth in 2018:

1. Math and economics

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Sample job titles include actuarial analyst, economics faculty member, mathematical programmer, data scientist and high school math teacher.

Sample job listing: Senior business data analyst.

The average salary for a senior business intelligence analyst tops out, according to Payscale, at $117,714.

2. Insurance

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Sample job titles include loss control specialist, nurse case manager, premium auditor, underwriting manager and claims representative.

Sample job listing: Clinical consultant

The average clinical consultant salary ranges from $58,412 to $106,510, according to Payscale.

3. Nonprofit and philanthropy

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Sample job titles include senior national fundraising director, program director, policy manager, major gifts officer and partnerships manager.

Sample job listing: Senior national fundraising director

The average salary for a senior fundraising director is, according to Glassdoor, $116,171.

4. Mortgage and real estate

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Sample job titles include senior loan officer, director of sales, district manager, real estate content producer and real estate valuation manager.

Sample job listing: Mortgage loan assistant

The average mortgage loan assistant salary ranges from $24,731 to $52,329, according to Payscale.

5. Marketing

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Sample job titles include associate product manager, marketing specialist, marketing operations manager, online campaign manager and digital marketing analyst.

Sample job listing: Marketing manager

The average marketing manager salary according to Payscale, is $63,466.

6. Engineering

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Sample job titles include solutions engineer, software engineer, automation expert, design/field engineering technician and head of front-end engineering.

Sample job listing: Senior traffic engineering supervisor

The average traffic engineer salary, according to Payscale, ranges from $51,911 to $96,569.

7. Project management

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Sample job titles include business process consultant, engagement manager, project manager, scrum master and project management manager.

Sample job listing: Client development director

The average salary for a client development director, according to Payscale, ranges from $62,058 to $152,051.