Telecommuting jobs are often associated with the freedom to work from anywhere. However, while telecommuting jobs in general do offer significantly more autonomy over the location of where work is performed, for a variety of reasons the vast majority of telecommuting jobs do include a geographic requirement that remote workers must be based in a specific city, state, region, or country. To help job seekers identify states with high potential for telecommuting job opportunities, FlexJobs has identified the top 15 states where companies recruited the most state-based telecommuters in 2016. California, Texas, and New York led the states with the highest number of telecommuting job postings, with others such as Minnesota, Georgia, and Colorado also included on this geographically diverse list of states.

The most common reasons for location requirements on telecommuting jobs, according to employers, are legal, licensing, or tax considerations. Some telecommuting jobs have specific requirements in those areas, or else they could otherwise be performed with location neutrality. For example, remote nurses and attorneys may require specific state-issued licenses or certifications. Companies may only be registered as employers in certain states, limiting their ability to hire to those states. And remote business development managers may be hired to work in a region of the country where their current or future clients are based.

“While these 15 states had the highest number of telecommuting job listings last year, job seekers should keep in mind that telecommuting jobs are also available in their local areas, as companies absolutely hire remote workers in all 50 states,” said Sara Sutton Fell, Founder and CEO of FlexJobs. “And while most telecommuting jobs do have a geographic requirement, there are also diverse remote jobs that can be done from any location in the U.S. and even the world,” Sutton Fell concluded.

The following 15 states had the highest number of telecommuting job listings in 2016. Following each state is a sample of companies who have recently, or are currently, hiring for telecommuting jobs in that respective state:

1. California: Anthem, Dell, and Volkswagen have recently recruited telecommuters in California

2. Texas: Humana, Toyota, and Wells Fargo have recently recruited telecommuters in Texas

3. New York: Adobe, Salesforce, and Xerox have recently recruited telecommuters in New York

4. Florida: American Heart Association, Colgate-Palmolive, and Hilton Worldwide have recently recruited telecommuters in Florida

5. Illinois: Blue Cross Blue Shield, Ernst & Young, and Nestle have recently recruited telecommuters in Illinois

6. Pennsylvania: Oracle, Philips, and Voya Financial have recently recruited telecommuters in Pennsylvania

7. Virginia: Biogen, CenturyLink, and Nielsen have recently recruited telecommuters in Virginia

8. North Carolina: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Lenovo, and SAP have recently recruited telecommuters in North Carolina

9. Georgia: Chobani, Office Depot, and Worldpay have recently recruited telecommuters in Georgia

10. Arizona: Progressive, Verizon, and Walgreens have recently recruited telecommuters in Arizona

11. Minnesota: Boston Scientific, Citizens Bank, and UnitedHealth Group have recently recruited telecommuters in Minnesota

12. Massachusetts: Liberty Mutual, Mitsubishi Electric, and The Hartford have recently recruited telecommuters in Massachusetts

13. Colorado: JPMorgan Chase, OpenTable, and Unilever have recently recruited telecommuters in Colorado

14. New Jersey: DeVry Education Group, General Electric, and Robert Half International have recently recruited telecommuters in New Jersey

15. Ohio: Capella University, Cars.com, and 3M have recently recruited telecommuters in Ohio

“The key take-away for employers that still do not offer remote work options is this: remote work is already happening for most white-collar workers, who are often expected to check email when they are out of the office, or take work home with them to complete at night or on the weekends,” said Sutton Fell. “But there is still a bit of fear holding some companies back from creating more formalized remote work programs. What we’ve seen, though, is that when companies move past that fear and embrace remote work as a smart business strategy, they can build more productive, happier, and more cost-effective workforces, benefitting both workers AND the company’s bottom line,” Sutton Fell concluded.

The top four career fields for telecommuting jobs in 2016 were medical and health, computer and IT, customer service, and education. Opportunities for telecommuters range from entry-level to executive-level and include both part-time and full-time schedules.

Some of the most common traits of successful telecommuters include proactive communication skills, self-discipline, comfort working independently, and strong time management skills.