Work From Home in Florida (FL): A Guide to Telecommuting in the Sunshine State

If you can work from anywhere, Florida is as attractive an option as any. It boasts some 825 miles of coastline and a warm climate that earned it its nickname: the Sunshine State. Florida also offers telecommuters a zero percent income tax rate, making salaries a little heftier than they might be elsewhere in the nation. Add in a proximity to postcard destinations like the Caribbean and Latin America, and working from home could feel more like a vacation if that home is in Florida.

According to LinkedIn (2022), there are over 110,000 current work-from-home job postings in Florida. So the question isn’t whether there are remote work opportunities in Florida, it’s which one to pursue. As the third most populous state in the country, there are opportunities to telecommute in practically every industry, but a few sectors stand out as being particularly relevant to Floridians who wish to work from home.

Not all the jobs below require you to be in Florida—after all, the whole point is to work from home or wherever you please—but they do have major ties to the Sunshine State. Whether you’re already living in Florida and looking to take advantage of the opportunities around you, or just looking for a reason to get a little closer to that Florida sunshine, check out our comprehensive guide to telecommuting in Florida below.

The nation has been severely impacted by Covid-19, and Florida was no exception. At the first peak of the pandemic in 2020, they had over 20,000 new cases a day. Along with testing and social distancing, contact tracing has been one of the best ways to combat further spread. While this was initially thought to be a short-term job, the need is continued as waves of the pandemic have continued to come and go. Remote workers will find a low barrier to entry. For those looking for an immediate leap into a work-from-home opportunity that does plenty of social good, contact tracing could be the right fit.

Close to 30 percent of Florida’s 21.5 million residents speak a language other than English at home, according to the latest census data. Bilingual translators can facilitate document translation and lecture notes, or they can work in real-time on video calls. Some companies may recruit a remote translator full-time and freelance work is an option as well. Despite the hype, automated translation still has a long way to go and humans are still the go-to solution for any type of translation that truly matters.

Customer service has increasingly migrated to the remote work domain, and it’s a major employer for the nation’s third most populous state. Florida serves as the gateway to Latin America, with many major companies headquartering their Latin American divisions within the state.

Remote workers in customer service positions based in Florida will benefit from Spanish language skills, but the opportunities are diverse enough to include monolingual applicants as well.

Less than 30 percent of Floridians have a bachelor’s degree. At the same time, Florida has several large, high-caliber universities. Telecommuters can help bridge the gap through remote teaching and tutoring services, which may be provided either through an educational institution or on a freelance basis. While some teaching jobs may have certain educational or licensing requirements, tutoring is often provided on a much more informal basis, giving it a low barrier to entry.

The coronavirus pandemic has had a severe impact on the hospitality industry, and that’s hit particularly hard in Florida, which received over 126 million tourists in 2018. However, due to international travel restrictions, the state rebounded in early 2021 with more visitors than ever. Effective hospitality marketing will be a major part of recovering those figures. And, with international travel for many still challenging, the bulk of the visitors were domestic travelers with only 1.1 million arriving from overseas.

Thanks to a warm climate and eye-pleasing scenery, plenty of people want to own property in Florida. But remote mortgage sales are about more than simply getting a homeowner to sign on the dotted line. With interest rates still below three percent for many borrowers, and prices in Florida skyrocketing 24 percent in the past year, consumers are in need of top quality help securing lending. The best mortgage salespeople will help match the right potential homeowner with the right mortgage option.

In 2020, Florida had the highest rate of new entrepreneurs, and was second only to California on the Kauffman Early Stage Startup Index. The state boasts one of the nation’s largest software and computer systems industries, with over 33,000 firms employing over 311,800 industry professionals. It also hosts 112 data centers, the second most of all states in the country. Remote workers with skills in software, data management, and computer systems should have no shortage of options in the Sunshine State.

If Florida were a country, it’d have the 15th largest global economy. And, somewhat paradoxically, no sales tax means Florida-based accountants have more work opportunities, not fewer, with the state holding the title of fourth best tax climate in the nation. Accountancy tasks take place entirely in the realm of data, and, as such, are not bound to a physical office.

Florida has one of the most sophisticated healthcare systems in the country, with over one million healthcare workers. Thanks to advances in digital communication, the workforce can become increasingly remote. As of 2019, Florida law allows out-of-state practitioners to perform telehealth services within Florida, while in-state practitioners can provide telehealth services to patients in the same ways they are licensed to treat a patient in-person.

Florida has seen an over 35 percent increase in homeschooled students in the past year. However, the state also maintains several regulations around homeschooling, and most students will need to be assessed once a year on their academic progress. In order to help parents and children get the most out of their homeschool experience, homeschool consultants can provide notes on curriculum design, classroom instruction, and periodic assessments.

Matt Zbrog

Writer

Matt Zbrog is a writer and freelancer who has been living abroad since 2016. His nonfiction has been published by Euromaidan Press, Cirrus Gallery, and Our Thursday. Both his writing and his experience abroad are shaped by seeking out alternative lifestyles and counterculture movements, especially in developing nations. You can follow his travels through Eastern Europe and Central Asia on Instagram at @weirdviewmirror. He’s recently finished his second novel, and is in no hurry to publish it.