With the advent of the “post-epidemic era”, all businesses are accelerating their return to “normalization”.
As a new thing during the epidemic, whether remote work should be retained is a controversial topic. Some say telecommuting is dead, and others say it’s here to stay because it’s the “new normal.” Whichever side you take, one thing is for sure – employers are offering fewer and fewer remote work opportunities, although the demand for remote work is still there.
As a result, there has been a “massive imbalance between the supply and demand of remote work.” Rand Gayard, LinkedIn’s global director of labor markets, told The Washington Post that before the COVID-19 pandemic, labor supply and demand imbalances were often reflected in skills. But now, “workers are often looking for jobs with certain features—such as the ability to work remotely—but employers are not necessarily willing to provide this convenience.”
According to a recent report written by Gayard, as of October this year, the ratio of the number of offline job offers to the number of job seekers in the United States is 2:1. The ratio of the number of recruits to the number of job seekers for telecommuting positions is reversed, 1:2. That’s because the number of telecommuting jobs posted on LinkedIn has grown dramatically since the outbreak, but has now fallen back to 14% of all job postings.
This ratio has dropped significantly compared to the epidemic period. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, more than one-third of private companies have expanded telecommuting during the pandemic. Of those, 60% said they expected to continue implementing these telecommuting policies.
In the “post-pandemic era”, many businesses are struggling to return to normalcy, leading to increased demand for employees to return to the office. At the same time, some companies have not only tightened flexibility, but also cut benefits for some telecommuting employees and even leadership.
Nowadays, the policies of many enterprises are tightening. If leadership thinks productivity is equated with being on the job five days a week, they will have little incentive to offer telecommuting opportunities. Many employers think that the initiative is in their hands now, because during the economic downturn, the possibility of layoffs will cause more employees to desperately want to keep their jobs, so they can only give up some of the demands made during the epidemic, because during the epidemic Employees are in a better position.
At present, the entire job market seems to be tightening, and the “big resignation” has become a “big regret”. According to a recent Harris Poll survey of more than 2,000 U.S. job seekers, more than 70% of job seekers believe that finding a good job is much harder than they expected. A July report by the Joblist website also pointed out that a quarter of employees who resigned during the epidemic regretted it.
And for employees, the novelty of working remotely has long since worn off, especially if they’re just looking for a job. However, this epidemic also shows that employees attach great importance to the flexibility of telecommuting. Dan Kaplan, senior client partner at global consulting and headhunting firm Korn Ferry, previously told Fortune that people will never work the way they did before the pandemic.
Gayard also noted in his report that the advent of remote work has opened up opportunities for many job seekers with disabilities or various special circumstances.
“While the current decline in hiring casts a cloud over the near-term economic outlook, in the long run it will help create new economic growth for those facing difficulties in the current job market,” Gayard wrote in the report. Opportunity. While we face uncertainty and a possible recession, and we face bumps in the road to diversity, equality and inclusion in the workplace, telecommuting offers a powerful way to engage, support and retain great talent from all backgrounds.” (Fortune Chinese Website)
Translated by: Park Sung-gyu
The push to return to normal has found the spark companies need to kick it into high gear.
We’ve gone through just about every narrative at this point: remote work is dead, it’s here to stay, it is the new normal. Whatever side of the argument you may be on, one thing stands true: Employers are offering fewer and fewer remote work opportunities even as demand for such work remains.
The result: “the great remote work mismatch,” LinkedIn’s head of economics and global labor markets, Rand Ghayad, told The Washington Post. Labor mismatches have typically centered around skills in pre-pandemic times, he explained. Now, he said, “ Workers are looking for jobs that offer certain attributes—like the ability to work remotely—that employers aren’t willing to offer.”
As of October, there were two on-site job openings for every one applicant looking for work, according to a recent report written by Ghayad. On the flip side, there were two applicants for every one remote work opening available. of jobs posted on LinkedIn that toout remote work has fallen to just 14% of openings after ballooning since the beginning of the pandemic, according to the report.
That’s a far cry from the more than one-third of private-sector employers that expanded their remote work options during the pandemic, per US Bureau of Labor Statistics data. Roughly 60% of those said they expected to keep the policies in place.
The post-pandemic push to return to business as usual, however, has led to increased demand for workers to return to offices, while companies scale back on the flexibility and remote work benefits employees not only enjoyed, but imposed on leaders.
But now the clamps are tightening. Business leaders no longer feel the pressure to offer remote work if their idea of a productive, well-run workforce is instead fully in-office, five days a week. Employers see themselves now as holding the cards; there’s a belief that looming layoffs amid a sliding economy means workers will be more desperate for work and forgo the demands they made during the pandemic when they held the winning hand.
The job market as a whole appears to be tightening—the Great Resignation has morphed into a Great Remorse. A recent Harris Poll surveying more than 2,000 US job seekers found over 70% of them said it has been harder than they’d hoped to lock down a good role. And a July report from Joblist found that a quarter of workers who quit during the pandemic have come to regret it.
Some of the novelty of remote work has seemingly worn off for workers, especially if they’re simply trying to find work. However, a lasting lesson from the pandemic is the value workers continue place on having the flexibility to work from virtually anywhere. Dan Kaplan, senior client partner at global consulting and headhunting firm Korn Ferry, previously told Fortune that people simply aren’t going to go back to working like before.
Not to mention, Ghayad points out in the report, the advent of remote work has provided more opportunities for diverse candidates and workers with disabilities.
“While the current hiring declines cloud the near-term economic outlook, both factors bode well for the longer-term prospects of helping create economic opportunity for those who face significant barriers navigating the job market,” Ghayad wrote in the report. “As we In the face of ongoing uncertainty and a possible downturn, we are at risk of going backwards and a retrenchment from progress on diversity, equity, and inclusion in the workplace—remote work can be a powerful way to attract, support, and retain great talent from all backgrounds .”
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