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The rise of remote work has opened the door for workers to find jobs anywhere, paving the way for lifestyle fads including digital nomadism. But many remote workers in North America are finding jobs with foreign companies without having to catch a flight to far-off lands, according to HR payroll and compliance platform Deel’s annual State of Global Hiring Report, released today and shared exclusively with Fortune.
The report analyzed more than 300,000 work contracts, or agreements between Deel customers and workers, including contractors and full-time employees—approximately 85% of which were remote positions.
In 2023, North America was the fastest-growing region for workers hired both by domestic companies and those based abroad; in 2022, it only placed fourth. The share of American workers hired by international companies grew 62% in 2023, with the most recruited by companies based in the U.K., Canada, and France.
“The U.S. is a huge market. You want to crack it, you want to figure out how to get there, you want to start tapping into this amazing opportunity to hire fresh workers,” says Alex Bouaziz, Deel’s cofounder and CEO.
“People tend to forget actually, that it’s not just U.S. companies hiring outside the U.S.A.,” adds Bouaziz. “There’s so many companies that would benefit from the U.S. culture on how to build great businesses.”
U.S. workers were also the largest cohort of foreign workers hired by Canadian companies in 2023 according to Deel data, and Canadian organizations hiring American workers increased 46% last year.
The top job roles going to Americans were in research, sales, software engineering, content, and product. San Francisco ranked third internationally, behind London and Toronto, when it comes to cities providing the most “global workers,” defined as individuals employed by a company headquartered in a different country. For comparison, no U.S. cities were in the top five for global workers in 2022.
Within the U.S., the top cities with workers employed by an international company were San Francisco, New York, Chicago, Austin, and Miami. Bouaziz believes that as time goes on, companies will rely less on the traditional coastal hubs for sourcing talent.
“When you’re hiring as a Canadian company in the U.S., then it doesn’t matter if the person is in Minnesota, or in Iowa, or in Texas, right? You just want the best,” he says. “It’s not just centralizing everything into California and New York anymore. It’s about redistributing opportunity across the United States.”
Paige McGlauflin
paige.mcglauflin@fortune.com
@paidion
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Around the Table
A round-up of the most important HR headlines.
- An ex-Cloudflare employee recorded her firing and went viral on TikTok, but she says she has no regrets. Cloudflare’s chief executive calls it “painful for me to watch.” —Wall Street Journal
- IMF managing director Kristalina Georgieva weighed in on the risks of AI at the World Economic Forum in Davos this week. She says workers are vulnerable to mass layoffs and widening income equality. —Business Insider
- Adding trendy furniture and social amenities to your office won’t ensure a fun work culture. When it comes to returning to office life, employees are still looking for privacy and solitude. —Wall Street Journal
- Tech workers are ditching their coastal cities and flocking to Boise, Idaho. A lot of the newcomers are recent computer science grads looking for better prospects after mass industry layoffs. —WIRED
Watercooler
Everything you need to know from Fortune.
Sharpen up. Over 60% of U.S. employers will implement etiquette classes for their return-to-office employees. These trainings are intended to teach basics like how to dress and how to respect common areas. —Orianna Rosa Royale
“Almost as good as it gets.” A top Fed official says he's confident inflation will keep falling this year and reach the vaunted 2% target rate. Along with consistent hiring, he says the economy is on track. —Christopher Rugaber, Associated Press
On its head. An anti–DEI group is using a piece of legislation from the Civil Rights Act of 1866 to go after a VC fund that invests in businesses owned by women of color. One law professor calls the move a way to “turn civil rights law upside down.” —Anne D’Innocenzio, Alexandra Olson, Associated Press
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