Decline in remote jobs risks shutting disabled people out of work, study finds

A decline in the number of jobs for people who need to work remotely, including those with disabilities, could undermine the government’s efforts to reverse rising unemployment, according to a two-year study.More than eight in 10 respondents to a survey of working-age disabled people by researchers at Lancaster University said access to home working was essential or very important when looking for a new job.Almost half (46%) of the participants in the Inclusive Remote and Hybrid Working Study wanted to work remotely all the time, with disabled women and disabled carers more likely to want to work fully from home.The needs of disabled job applicants run against the trend for employers to reduce hybrid and remote working, the study found.Analysis of Adzuna job vacancy data showed declining levels of remote job opportunities. In the financial year 2024-25, only one in 23 job adverts on Adzuna (4.3%) were fully remote – half the level seen during the pandemic peak of 8.7% in 2020-21.“Growth in the availability of hybrid jobs appears to have stalled, with only one in seven (13.5%) job vacancies offering hybrid work in 2024-25,” the report said.The findings followed official job figures earlier this week covering the three months to December, which showed one in 11 disabled people were unemployed (9.2%), double the 4.4% average.The Office for National Statistics found there were 547,000 unemployed disabled people, an increase of 110,000 since the same period in 2024.“Unemployment has risen across the UK economy in the last 12 months, but analysis indicates that the rate has risen far more quickly for disabled people than non-disabled people,” said the Work Foundation, a thinktank based at Lancaster University, which coordinated the remote-working project with Manchester Metropolitan University.Billed as the largest study of disabled workers’ experiences of remote and hybrid work in the UK, with funding from the Nuffield Foundation, it involved interviews with more than 1,200 disabled people.The report said that while remote and hybrid working remain more common than before the pandemic, the proportion of fully remote roles had fallen, and the rate of growth in hybrid jobs had slowed.It found that 64% of fully remote disabled workers said their work pattern positively affected their physical health, compared with 31% of those working remotely less than half the time.There was also demand for hybrid working from a quarter of respondents who wanted to work from home four days a week and 27% for three days or fewer.Only a tiny fraction – 1.6% – wanted to stop working from home.One of the respondents, Vera, who is in her 20s and works for a healthcare company in London, said she was based at home following stem cell treatment for multiple sclerosis (MS).She was unable to return to a frontline role. “Remote work has made it possible for me to stay in employment – without it I couldn’t work,” she said.“While I’ve reduced my hours to four days a week, working from home means I can manage cognitive fatigue and rest during lunch breaks so I can stay productive.“But I feel stuck, as there are so few remote-only roles. These are realistically the only roles I can apply for if I want to keep working and progress in my career.”A recent study by the Work Foundation and the MS Society found that nearly half of people with MS (47%) look for job locations that require little or no travel.Lead researcher Paula Holland said: “The increased availability of remote and hybrid working since before the pandemic has improved many disabled people’s experience of work. Our findings indicate disabled employees gain significant benefits including improved mental and physical health, better work-life balance and increased productivity.“However, companies mandating people to return to the office have seen remote-only opportunities plummet and this could prevent some disabled workers from returning and staying in work. At a time when the government wants to get people working, disabled workers report that access to suitable home-working roles can be the difference between working or not working.”A recent House of Lords report called for ministers to ensure remote and hybrid working is being prioritised to boost disabled people’s employment.