U.S. companies are preferred employers for international remote workers, report says

International employees prefer U.S. companies to businesses located in other countries for remote work, according to a report.

The U.S. is the top destination for so-called virtual employment for these workers, meaning that they don’t necessarily work in the U.S., Appcast said in a March 4 statement.

Canada tied with Australia for second place in the rankings, followed by Germany and the U.K.

Still, the U.S. lost its top spot as the most desirable physical destination for international workers in 2020, the New Hampshire-based company said. Canada was picked as the most-preferred location, according to the report.

The report cited international workers’ concerns over unfriendly immigration policies, racial injustice and mismanagement of Covid-19 in recent years in the U.S. as influencing this trend. The U.S. had held the No. 1 ranking as a physical destination for the past eight years.

The report also found that desire to work in major U.S. cities fell last year, with only two U.S. cities now ranking in the top 30 cities globally: New York City, which declined from No. 2 in 2018 to No. 8 in 2020, and Los Angeles, which slipped from No. 7 to No. 12 in the same period.

Appcast, a global provider of employee recruitment advertising technology, compiled the report with Boston Consulting Group and The Network. They conducted a global survey of 208,807 workforce respondents in 190 countries.