COVID-19 has forced us to reimagine the way we’re working now and into the future. We know, for instance, that the increase in remote working has enabled many Australians to bring forward their plans of leaving the city in search of a more relaxed regional lifestyle. However, to date there has been very little exploration of how the current shifts in working practices are being experienced by regional movers, and what the implications for regional communities might be.

This second instalment in the Future of Work Lab’s Regional Migration Survey series, aims to better understand the current working patterns and future work aspirations of people who have migrated to regional Victoria from metropolitan areas across Australia.

Key findings:

• pre-COVID, 81% of people who migrated to the regions were employed, however, post-COVID this jumped to 95%
• pre-COVID 60% of internal migrants were employed regionally, this dropped to 35% as more regional movers retained ties to metro-based employment
• 90% of people who were in metro-based employment were working remotely at least some of the time
• 53% of respondents were working for a metro-based employer, while 47% were living and working regionally