Two-and-a-half years on from when the pandemic shuttered workplaces and offices around the globe, the demand to retain one major element of the ‘new normal’ remains very high: remote work.
Not a week goes by without a major company asking — or perhaps more accurately telling — workers to come back to the office. Employees at major banks like JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs are back in the office and even many of the most innovative tech companies now have a hybrid arrangement with at least some facetime in the office. On Tuesday, Snap Inc. told employees to show up in-office at least 80% of the time.
Out of office, in demand
Many who have clearly adapted to the WFH lifestyle appear keen to keep the commute out of their working lives and join the reported 30% of workers who are still logging in remotely. The typical employer, however, has other plans.
Indeed, as reported by The Washington Post, 50% of job applications on LinkedIn last month were for remote work positions, despite the fact that from-home postings made up just 15% of the listings on the site. Compared to the same month in 2020, when fewer than one-in-six applications were for remote roles on LinkedIn, it’s clear that the sort of work the job-seeking populus has appetite for has changed in a way that the market may not be able to meet.
