🧑‍💻 Is Portugal in a digital nomad bubble?

January 09, 2023

Hey remote work fam and Happy New Year! This is Remote Insider your favorite spot to get up to speed on the future of work and the digital nomad lifestyle.

Let's get into the most important news from the week 👇

🚨 The Scoop...

🇮🇹 This small mountain town in Tuscany wants digital nomads!

  • The small town of Santa Fiora (<3000 inhabitants) wants to become a "smart working village"

  • The town invested in high-speed fiber internet & built a coworking space

  • Visitors who rent a house for 2-6 months can have up to 50% of their rent covered by a local fund

😡 Remote work turns out to be a far better deal for men than for women

  • New research by Ohio State University found that men and women don't have the same experiences when working from home

  • The study found that wives that worked from home did significantly more household chores & tasks than before

  • Women who worked from home and had children were also more likely to experience symptoms of burnout and depression.

  • Despite this, 9 out of 10 women reported wanting to work from home

  • The preference for remote work was especially salient for women of color, LGBTQ women, or women with disabilities.

  • Local residents are getting increasingly frustrated with Portugal's focus on attracting digital nomads amid soaring house prices & gentrification

  • On the other side, some digital nomads say the country is not executing on the vision their promised citing lots of red tape, bureaucracy, and lack of services like child care

  • Portugal's Prime Minister has also hinted at closing down the country's popular Golden Visa scheme saying it had "fulfilled its function"

🌆 Is being a digital nomad possible only if you work in a city?

  • At the beginning of the pandemic it was believed that remote work may become the great equalizer between urban and rural areas, new research suggests that may not be the case

  • Research examined the use of platforms like Upwork & Fiverr in urban and rural settings and found that they do not show an equalization despite a lack of technical barriers

  • Researchers believe this is due to a lack of education for digital skills in rural areas

  • The research also points to a similar trend globally when comparing the northern & southern hemispheres.

📈 Despite return to office news, remote work hiring grew by 36% in Q3 of 2022

  • Contributing factors may include the rise of inflation & an increase travel costs to the office due to higher gas prices

  • Sales Engineering & Account Management are the top 2 fields hiring remotely

  • Turing, Pearson, and Amazon are the 3 companies hiring the most remote workers

🇪🇸 These Spanish villages will pay you to move there

  1. Ponga - willing to pay expat couples who settle there €3000 and an additional €3000 for each baby born in the village

  2. Rubia - keen to attract families with young kids, the local government is willing to pay €100-€150 per month per family

  3. Griegos - The town is offering to cover the rent of "young expat families" for up to 3 months.

🚛 Mitsubishi launches a truck for digital nomads:

Mitsubishi recently unveiled a new concept truck called the NOMADPro Canter which is designed specifically for digital nomads and outdoor enthusiasts. The furniture inside can be easily rearranged from a living room to a bedroom and the side win can be fully opened for an indoor/outdoor living space.

🌐 Featured remote jobs by Jordan Carroll:

I've teamed up with THE remote job coach Jordan Carroll to provide you with handpicked work-from-anywhere jobs right here in this newsletter. Here are the picks for this week:

Want help finding the right remote job for you? Join the Remote Collective and get introductions to dozens of remote companies looking to hire people like you!

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That's it from us this week, hope you have an amazing day!