Remote workers flocked to 'Zoom towns' during Covid—now they're competing to stay work-from-home

Fully remote jobs are getting harder to come by, but the competition for work-from-home jobs is especially fierce in some parts of the country.

In Bend, Ore., nearly 3 in 4 job applications are to roles that are remote, according to LinkedIn's latest Workforce Insights Report, which analyzed more than 201 million applications to remote jobs in the U.S. over the past year. Just two years ago, remote jobs in Bend attracted about 42% of applications.

Nationally, just 11% of open jobs on LinkedIn offer remote work, but they attract close to 50% of total job applications as of May.

Here are the top 10 metro areas seeing the greatest amount of interest in work-from-home jobs, along with the share of applications going to remote-specific openings, according to LinkedIn:

Many regions where people are especially keen to continue working from home are so-called Zoom towns, which saw an influx of residents during the mass remote-work era that began in 2020.

Bend, in particular, became popular among newly mobile tech workers from Silicon Valley and Seattle. The sudden inflow of high-paid knowledge workers led to a roughly 28% spike in average home prices, according to local reports.

However, in recent months, several Big Tech companies including Google, Microsoft, and Apple have increased return-to-office requirements.

People who permanently relocated during the pandemic may have to let go of some of their newfound flexibility as fully remote positions become harder to come by — or they may have to get creative.

"If workers aren't able to land remote jobs in an increasingly competitive climate, we may see a rise in entrepreneurship in these markets, workers moving back to larger metros, or even workers taking hybrid/in-office work in the cities that have become their homes in the past few years," said George Anders, LinkedIn's senior editor-at-large, in a release about the report.

Want to be smarter and more successful with your money, work & life? Sign up for our new newsletter!

Get CNBC's free report, 11 Ways to Tell if We're in a Recession, where Kelly Evans reviews the top indicators that a recession is coming or has already begun.

Check out: How return-to-office battles and remote work are making America's burnout problem worse