Top 10 UK areas most interested in working from home, amid upcoming train strikes

by | Mar 11, 2023

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Coordinated industrial actions, namely train strikes, have been rife in the UK as living costs remain high and workers demand fairer pay.

The ramifications of these strikes fall on workers who depend on trains to get into their place of work. With no assurances that these train strikes will stop in the future, a work-from-home role becomes more enticing to workers who wish to save time and money on commuting. 

With newly announced rail strike action coming up in the UK this Easter, there is a renewed interest in remote working. Experts at Financial-World have analysed Google keyword search volume data for interest in remote work for each major town and city in the UK. Search terms relating to remote work such as ‘work from home jobs’ and ‘remote jobs’ were summed, divided by the population of the area, and multiplied by 100,000 to give the search results per 100,000 of the population. These results were then ranked to discover the top ten. 

1. Walsall – 2,160 monthly online searches per 100k population 

 
 

The West Midlands town of Walsall is home to the greatest number of people searching for remote work in the UK, with 2,160 monthly online searches per 100,000 of the population. Dwellers of the town had an overwhelmingly high number of searches particularly for the phrase ‘work from home jobs’, exceeding every other town and city in the UK. West Midlands Railway, which serves Walsall station, is one of the 14 train companies that will be affected by the train strikes coming up in on the 16th, 18th and 30th of March. 

2. Blackburn – 1,000 monthly online searches per 100k population 

Blackburn comes in second place as the UK area most interested in working from home. With the exception of Walsall, Blackburn residents search for the phrase ‘work from home jobs’ far more than all other UK towns and cities. Blackburn will also be affected by the train strikes this month as Northern Trains will be striking in March.  

 
 

3. Norwich – 929 monthly online searches per 100k population 

Norwich comes in third place with 929 monthly online searches for remote work per 100,000 of the population. East Midlands Railway, which serves Norwich station, will also be affected by the strikes this month.  

4. Birmingham – 886 online searches per 100k population 

 
 

Birmingham is home to the fourth greatest number of people searching for remote work. West Midlands Railway, which serves Birmingham will be affected by rail strike action this month. 

5. Leicester – 828 online searches per 100k population 

Leicester dwellers take fifth place for the UK city most interested in working from home, with 828 searches each month per 100,000 of the population. East Midlands Railway, which serves Leicseter, will be affected by strike action this month. 

6. Preston – 799 online searches per 100k population 

7. Salford – 789 online searches per 100k population 

8. Mansfield – 787 online searches per 100k population 

9. Reading 785 online searches per 100k population 

10. Wigan – 772 online searches per 100k population 

A spokesperson from Financial-World commented on the study: “There is a clear demand for remote roles in the UK. The costs of commuting and the time spent doing so is proving to be a strain on many people’s finances and a stressful situation to navigate among train strike actions and the cost-of-living crisis. This is evident by the fact that every city or town featured in the top ten of this study is due to be affected by train strikes. It will be interesting to see if more employers consider welcoming more flexible work-from-home schemes or hybrid workers to keep up with the demand and avoid losing employees in the future.” 

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