U.S. Labor Department Survey... 72.5% of Workplaces Operating Normally
Up 12.4%p from Last Year, Returning to Pre-Pandemic Levels
As COVID-19 has recently entered the endemic phase, the work-from-home trend that had greatly expanded in the United States after the pandemic appears to be shrinking.
On the 25th (local time), The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported, citing recent business survey data from the U.S. Department of Labor, that 72.5% of workplaces responded that employees did not work from home at all or hardly at all last year.
According to this, the proportion of workplaces where employees normally commuted increased by more than 12 percentage points compared to 60.1% in 2021, reaching a level close to 76.7% in February 2020, before the COVID-19 pandemic. In terms of the number of employees, about 21 million more workers returned to offices and other workplaces last year.
The proportion of workplaces operating a ‘hybrid’ work model, combining commuting and working from home, also sharply declined by 13.4 percentage points compared to the previous year. In particular, in the financial sector such as banks and securities firms, the proportion of workplaces adopting hybrid work dropped by more than half, from 44.9% in 2021 to 22% last year.
The main reason for the sharp decline in workplaces adopting work-from-home in the U.S. is cited as ‘decreased productivity.’ With the COVID-19 endemic phase, rapid interest rate hikes, and concerns about economic recession, companies have started focusing on employee productivity, which has led to a reduction in remote work.
Mike Steinitz, Senior Director at global staffing consultancy Robert Half, told WSJ, “Managers believe employees are more productive in the office,” adding, “They feel that office work is important not only for mentoring and training new hires but also for existing employees.”
"Return to the office" orders... IT sector actually increases remote work
In fact, American companies have recently been ordering employees to "return to the office." Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta, sent an email to employees earlier this month stating, “Face-to-face time builds relationships and helps us get more work done.”
Also, Walt Disney increased on-site workdays from three to four days per week this month, and Amazon is reportedly requiring employees to come to the office at least three days a week starting in May.
The significant employment growth in retail, food service, and hospitality industries, where working from home is nearly impossible, is also cited as a reason for the decline in remote work rates. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, about 30% of the 7.7 million new hires in the private sector since August 2021 were in leisure and hospitality and retail sectors.
However, the work-from-home trend in the U.S. does not seem to be ending. The survey showed that workplaces adopting full remote work slightly increased from 10.3% in 2021 to 11.1% last year. Especially in the information technology (IT) sector, the full remote work rate rose by 4.8 percentage points to 42.2%.
Including partial remote work, 67.4% of workplaces in the information sector utilize work-from-home, and in professional fields such as law and accounting, this rate reaches 49%. Senior Director Steinitz added, “White-collar industries had been adopting flexible work arrangements even before the COVID-19 pandemic.”
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