Remote work job vacancies plunge below pandemic levels in Spain

The Spanish job market is quietly reversing one of the pandemic's most visible legacies. Remote work positions, which surged to 21 percent of all job openings in 2021 as lockdowns forced companies online, have now fallen to 11 percent—a decline that has persisted for four straight years and dipped below even 2020 levels. In absolute terms, employers posted 280,810 remote-capable positions in 2025, down from the 476,233 that existed at the pandemic's peak.

The shift reflects a broader recalibration of how Spanish companies think about work. The steepest drop came between 2023 and 2024, when remote offerings fell from 18 percent to 14 percent of the market. Last year saw another sharp contraction, losing three more percentage points. Mónica Pérez, head of communications and research at InfoJobs, the employment portal that tracked these numbers alongside business school Esade, attributes the decline not to a wholesale rejection of remote work but to a settling of expectations. "The hybrid format has consolidated," she said. "The fall comes largely from sectors where remote work simply isn't viable." Román Campa, recently appointed CEO of InfoJobs, echoed this view, noting that "a degree of in-person presence is necessary" and that the extremes—either never working remotely or always doing so—are both problematic.

The data reveals a stark sectoral divide. Technology and telecommunications dominate the remote landscape, with 68 percent of positions in that field offering some form of distance work. Sales and commercial roles follow at 21 percent of remote vacancies, though they represent a smaller share of their own sector. Legal services (59 percent remote-capable) and finance and banking (51 percent) also show strong remote adoption. But entire industries remain tethered to physical locations: procurement, logistics, warehousing, healthcare, retail, skilled trades, and hospitality generated almost no remote opportunities. Customer service roles, which can theoretically be handled from anywhere, still accounted for nearly 36,000 remote positions—the third-largest category after sales and tech.

When you look at specific job titles, the pattern becomes even clearer. Teleoperators led the count with 42,550 remote-capable positions, followed by real estate agents (14,175) and sales delegates (13,862). In the technology realm, backend developers and IT analysts showed the highest remote penetration, at 90 and 89 percent respectively. Online teaching stood apart as an outlier: 97 percent of professor positions—7,758 in total—included remote options. Most remote positions came with indefinite contracts, a sign that companies treating remote work as permanent rather than temporary.

Geography matters enormously. Madrid concentrated 40 percent of all remote job postings, a striking concentration that reflects Spain's economic centralization. Barcelona and Catalonia followed distantly at 19 percent of regional postings. Andalusia managed only 11 percent, while the Valencian Community lagged at 7 percent. Beyond the two major metropolitan areas, Valencia and Seville each maintained more than 10,000 remote vacancies, but Málaga dropped below that threshold to 8,572. Zaragoza and Vizcaya both exceeded 5,000.

The broader picture suggests a labor market in search of equilibrium. Remote work has not disappeared—it has simply normalized and contracted to the sectors and roles where it makes operational sense. Yet the data hints at a persistent tension: candidates continue to seek remote arrangements more eagerly than employers offer them. As companies have reasserted the value of physical presence for certain workflows and team dynamics, the pandemic-era expansion of location independence has given way to a more selective, sector-specific approach. For workers in technology or sales, remote options remain plentiful. For everyone else, the return to the office has been steady and largely complete.