Dia duit (Irish Gaelic greeting). Halloween is next week, and the jack-o’-lantern started in Ireland, where people carved faces into turnips. Pumpkins became the norm once the tradition crossed the Atlantic because they’re bigger and easier to carve. Same tradition, different fine print. Just like a lot of remote job listings.

In today’s newsletter:

You find the perfect remote job listing. The pay’s great, team sounds good, 100% remote (woot!). Then you scroll to the bottom: U.S. residents only.

Remotavia’s October remote job market report tracked 45,567 open remote jobs at 9,409 companies. The findings? 87% hire only in certain countries or regions, with just 7% being open to applicants worldwide. The U.S. actually dominates the restricted listings by a wide margin: 22,000 jobs hire only in the U.S., compared to roughly 2,900 listings limited to Canada, and 2,100 limited to the U.K.

And this isn’t a one-off finding either. FlexJobs found work-from-anywhere roles made up less than 5% of remote postings in its database last year, even though 58% of workers say they want to be fully remote.

Even when a job says it’s open to you, it’s good to check the details:

The good news? Hiring isn’t slowing down. Employers posted 14,760 new remote jobs in the past week, up 19% from the week before, led by marketing and AI roles.

The takeaway: remote describes where you work, not who can apply. Before getting attached to a job listing, look up its eligibility requirements. You can count on every role on the TNN job board to include where you can work from.

The best person for your next role might not live near your office — or even in the same country.

And more companies are realizing they don't need to open entities everywhere just to hire great talent globally.

Instead, teams are using an employer of record (EOR) to hire internationally faster, stay compliant, and avoid the operational headache of setting up local infrastructure before they're ready.

That shift is changing how companies think about growth, hiring, and expansion altogether.

Oyster's EOR helps companies hire, pay, and support employees in 180+ countries while Oyster handles payroll, compliance, taxes, and local employment requirements.

Talk to experts today

Nearly 100,000 California state workers walked off the job Wednesday in a one-day strike, the first in the history of SEIU Local 1000. More than 96% of members voted to authorize it earlier this month.

In Sacramento, thousands marched downtown from the Secretary of State’s office to the Department of Human Resources, which reportedly tried to block the strike before it happened. Picket lines also went up in Oakland, Los Angeles, and San Bernardino. About 5,000 members who absence would threaten public health and safety, including staff at Corrections and Caltrans, stayed on the job.

The union has been without a contract since June. Its top priorities:

The last demand has a backstory. Governor Newsom’s executive order requiring state workers in the office four days a week took effect July 1. Last month, he vetoed a bipartisan bill that would have let each agency set its own telework policy. CalHR says it’s still available at the bargaining table.

Why it matters: the state of California has one of the largest public workforces in the country, and remote work is now a contract demand. Whatever California settles on could become a blueprint for other states bargaining over the same issue.

🏦 Barclays is cutting 5,000 jobs. The British bank is eliminating about 5,000 roles, roughly 5% of its global workforce, as it brings more AI into its operations. About 1,000 jobs are already gone, and the rest are expected to be cut by the end of the year. Around 60% of the cuts hit support roles, including software developers. The announcement came alongside a 12% jump in quarterly profit, which still fell short of analyst expectations. CEO C.S. Venkatakrishnan didn’t directly blame AI, saying instead that the cuts reflect the bank’s heavy tech investments and efforts to simplify the business. Barclays has been discussed before: just weeks ago, it delayed its three-day office mandate until 2027 after thousands of staff signed a union letter.

🇬🇧 NatWest is ending “remote-first”. Another U.K. bank, another office fight. NatWest is scrapping its remote-first category, crated in 2021, and asking about 30,000 staff to spend at least two days a week in the office. For roughly 13,500 remote-first employees, that means going from two office days a month to two a week starting February 2027. Unite says the move breaks NatWest’s 2025 pay deal, which set out how workers would be consulted on future office changes. The union is also raising concerns about commuting costs and the impact on carers and disabled staff. NatWest says flexibility still matters, but that it has seen that value of time spent together. With Barclays and Santander’s TSB also tightening attendance, three U.K. lenders are also raising office days in the first half of 027, and unions are contesting each one.

🇦🇺 Australia puts WFH requests in writing. Starting with the first full pay period on or after this Monday, October 26, about 1.56 million office and admin workers covered by the Clerks Award can formally request to work from home, or record arrangements they already have. It’s a right to ask, not a right to work from home, and employers still have the option to say no. When they agree, oth sides can agree in writing to adjust award rules that don’t fit home working, like when hours are worked and when breaks are taken. It’s a softer approach than Victoria’s promised legal right to work from home two days a week. That bill stalled in a parliamentary committee, and its vote has been pushed past the state’s November 28 election.

Planning a 2027 remote work move? Start with a visa. More than 50 countries offer some form of digital nomad visa now, and Time Out’s 2027 roundup narrows the list of the best places to live and work remotely. Some standouts:

One to skip for now? The Philippines. The archipelagic nation signed its digital nomad visa into law in 2025, but there’s still no way to apply for it.

Pumble: the team chat app for anyone wanting a free messaging plan that lets you keep your messages. Made by CAKE.com, the company behind time tracker Clockify, Pumble gives free users unlimited users, channels, and searchable message history. The free plan includes 10 GB of storage per workspace. Group meetings and screen sharing start on the Pro plan at $2.49 per seat. It’s a good fit for small, distributed teams that want Slack-style channels without Slack-style pricing. Try Pumble →