According to the web site worktime, 22.8% of U.S. employees work remotely at least part of the time. That’s more than 36 million Americans with only 21% working entirely on-site. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor statistics the percentages of employees working remotely in industry sectors are:
- Professional, Scientific and Technical Services (e.g. legal and consultants) 41.4%
- IT: 38.8%
- Finance and Insurance: 37.6%
- Company Management 33%
- Real estate and rental/leasing: 21%
- Utilities, Wholesale, and Arts and Entertainment: around 15%
- Healthcare, Retail and Construction: around 10%
- Accommodation and Food Services: 5%
Those figures are for remote workers in the U.S. but what about those who work remotely from another country- the ‘digital nomads’ or more accurately ‘Cross-Border Remote Workers’? According to FMC Group in 2026 there are now 40 million people employed worldwide of which 18.5 million are U.S. citizens. 41% are freelancers, 34% are full-time employees and 25% run their own businesses. There were approximately 8 million American digital nomads in 2019 and the numbers almost doubled during 2020 and 2021, perhaps as a reaction to Covid lockdowns or the unemployment that happened then. Since then, the growth has dropped to between 2% and 5% with a forecast of 60 million by 2030.
Myths with Remote Hiring
All digital nomads work in cafes or on the beach? According to SQMagazine the percentage is around 2% with the majority (82%) working from a home office.
Anyone can become a digital nomad with any job? Yes and no. If the job involves sensitive data, then handling it from a foreign country is a big no-no due to data protection or export regulations. Also, you will need to have skills and/or experience in some of the industry sectors mentioned earlier.
Life is cheap if you are a digital nomad? Well maybe not if you go to Portugal or Spain, two of the most popular destinations. Thailand and Indonesia though both have very low living costs.
Taxes and visas are simple for digital nomads? It depends on where you go. The website nomadvisa.guide has details. If you’re considering the digital nomad lifestyle research your destination first.
Digital nomads are mainly single people? No, according to GitNux, 29% of digital nomads have children, with 15% traveling with family.
Problems with job searches
Searches for digital nomad jobs or remote work offer a large number of results including some confusingly for companies with Nomad in their name. On dice.com the filter remote brings over 10,000 results. Maybe it’s not that surprising that many of these jobs are not programming but managerial.
Many remote jobs still require residency in the U.S., E.U. or in specific time-zones. Although there are a lot of job search web sites for remote/digital nomads, these three are rated the best for global roles.
The downside of being a digital nomad
According to Gitnux, over half of digital nomads experience loneliness, they find bureaucracy is a problem and dealing with different time zones can be a real timewaster. The loneliness is made worse by the average time in one place is just one to three months (average 68 days). That’s ok if you’re in your twenties or thirties but not a lifestyle you want to have as you get older. The median age is 34 to 37.
For U.S. employers there can also be problems as 36% of U.S. digital nomads operate without formal employer consent, per MBO Partners’ 2024 release. This lack of consent exposes employers to four risk categories with significant risk of financial penalties: foreign payroll tax, permanent-establishment tax, immigration violations, and GDPR breaches.
The North Korean worker problem
Since 2011 there has been a rise in fraud with remote IT workers and software developers who appear to be U.S. based but may actually be North Korean, operating illegally using stolen or fraudulent identities. The workers are graduates who have received training in hacking techniques and foreign languages.
The U.S. government estimates that a typical team of North Korean IT workers can earn up to $3 million annually. Individual workers can earn an average of $300,000 per year, with the funds being funnelled directly to North Korea's government and weapons programs.
According to Mandiant, a subsidiary of Google, nearly every Fortune 500 company chief information security officer interviewed about the issue has admitted to hiring at least one North Korean IT worker.
To defeat security checks laptop farms are set up in the U.S. so the remote workers’ IP addresses are proxied to appear U.S. based.
Conclusions
The job market in recent years has had its ups and downs since 2020 with Covid causing a spike to 14.4% unemployment in the U.S. and a rise in remote working, both from home and abroad. The number of digital nomads doubled between 2019 and 2022. Financially it can be favourable as well with digital nomads in software development earning above $100,000.
