There was some awesome new data published by wfhresearch.com this week that shows stabilizing levels of remote work days in the workforce.
Here are some of my favorite charts from this data, and my insights as a recruiter in the financial services space.
It is important to call out that this data is collected from surveys of ~100,000 respondents, and does not filter for white collar vs. blue collar jobs. Additionally, the data is more heavily focused on those with post-high school degree education, and heavier weighted to tech and internet savvy respondents.
Remote work days are stabilizing at roughly 30%, or ~2 days a week.
It's crazy to see the spike action in this chart from 5% pre-pandemic to 60% of the work force almost over night. The fact we were able to shift the majority of our work force remotely that quickly and effectively is one of the greatest technological achievements of our generation.
As you can see from the data, as 2020 progressed the number of remote days dropped, however the average days working remote began to level off around January of 2021. We have been in the 30-35% range for nearly 2 years now.
Most of my clients across the large banks and asset management firms in NYC are in a hybrid schedule. The most frequent schedule I see is 2-3 days a week in office, Tuesday to Thursday. Mondays and Fridays are rarely in office.
Employers are leveling their expectations too
This chart shows that employers over the past two years have had to gradually increase their expectations of what the "post-covid" workplace looked like.
As the pandemic prolonged, and the war to retain talent raged throughout corporate America, the benefits of remote work were a large focus point for what won over employees. As we entered this year, employers grew their expectations to on average 2 days a week from home.
We have seen this data stabilize in synergy with employee expectations for how many days a week they expect to be in office, which is a good sign for establishing longer-term forecasts on what the job market will look like from a remote working perspective.
The majority of employees with a Bachelor Degree are either Hybrid or Fully Remote:
The key take-away from this chart is the majority of college graduates are not entertaining working fully on site.
Compensation alone will no longer attract the best talent.
You want to win the talent war?
Give your people flexibility. The majority of candidates already have at least a hybrid schedule.
From my own personal experience working with candidates, the #1 biggest game changer on an offer is when an employer offers flexibility around the expectations of coming into an office.
Want to know why?
Every benefit here listed I hear time and time again from my candidates. I feel the same way for my work personally!
Employees value working remotely.
And they're note even saying they need fully remote environments. The data shows that employees mostly DO want to come into an office on some cadence.
I cover these trends and other financial news and career topics daily on my LinkedIn profile
@Gordy Bonker II - feel free to connect and follow me there to stay up to date, and subscribe to the blog to never miss a Beat!
Also - if you or someone you know is looking for a new job, I may be able to help. Please send me a DM on LinkedIn, or an email at gordonbonker@michaelpage.us.com to see if I or one of my colleagues may have an opportunity that matches your background.
I specialize in Finance and Accounting recruitment within the Financial Services market in NYC, however we have teams at the firm that cover all areas from Marketing, Sales, Technology IT, and more!