According to two recent studies, the desire to work from home has increased dramatically. According to a jobs report published by Semrush, remote work searches increased 300% between July 2021 and July 2022. According to the State of Remote Work survey by Owls Lab and Global Workplace Analytics, the vast majority of workers believe remote work would make them happier.
According to Semrush, the popularity of searches such as “remote jobs near me,” “part-time remote jobs” and “entry-level remote jobs” has more than quadrupled year-over-year. At the same time, the average percentage of remote jobs posted by job search sites is only 6.8%, showing that demand for remote jobs clearly exceeds supply.
This is despite the fact that the labor market in the United States remains strong and unemployment has dropped to 3.5%, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, which means companies must continue to offer incentives like remote work to attract talent.
This fall, some businesses have been attempting to get employees back to the office, but workers prefer the flexibility they’ve grown accustomed to in recent years, according to a survey from Global Workplace Analytics and Owl Labs, a supplier of video conferencing.
According to the Owl Labs/Global Workplace Analytics survey, 42% of employees now want to work remotely full-time, up 8% points from last year, and 36% want hybrid work arrangements, up 5% points. The vast majority (86%) claimed that working remotely would make them happier, and 62% claimed that they would be more productive.
According to the Owl Labs/Global Workplace Analytics survey, the urge to return to the office is strongest in smaller companies, with 41% of small companies (with 10 to 50 employees) doing so compared to 27% of companies (with more than 10,000 employees).
Workers reported that before the Covid-19 pandemic, only 8% of their companies had flexible policies, while now nearly two-thirds (62%) reported that their company had at least some level of flexible work in place. This shows that the flexibility workers want is starting to become the norm.
The Owl Labs/Global Workplace Analytics survey found that mid-sized enterprises (between 501 and 5,000 employees) lead the way with 70% of companies offering flexible work practices – more than any other company size. Yet some companies are still unprepared. Only 50% of managers receive training on managing remote and hybrid teams, and only 54% of employees are taught how to conduct efficient and inclusive hybrid meetings.