The United States Department of Labor published a report on March 22 with data extracted from the Business Report Review document on telecommuting, hiring and vacancies in the US private sector. The text indicated that the percentage of companies with employees under a teleworking regime between August and September 2022 was 72.5%, while that percentage was 60.1% between July and September 2021.
discrepancies. This means that teleworking is receding in the United States, which would fit in a context in which many companies, especially in the technology sector, are increasing the weight of face-to-face work in their organizations. However, some experts have been critical of the conclusions of, pointing out that there are numerous studies that indicate the opposite: that teleworking remains relevant.
Harsh criticism. Adam Ozimek, chief economist at the Economic Innovation Group, a public body, recently told The New York Times that the Labor Department report was not “the most reliable measure” of telecommuting. Ozimek, co-author of a report published on March 7 that indicated that remote work increases the birth rate among those who practice it, added in conversations with the North American media that it was necessary to improve the measurement parameters of telework.
Very different numbers. In this sense, it seems that WFH Research has used other methods in its recently published ‘Survey of Working Arrangements and Attitudes’ report. The document, prepared by researchers from institutions including the Universities of Chicago and Stanford, indicated that in the month of February, 60% of the wage earners surveyed worked in the office, while 28% and 12% did. they did under hybrid regime and remote regime respectively.
Different conclusions. This means that 40% of the full-time workers surveyed used telecommuting in their work activity, a percentage higher than the 27.5% indicated in the report by the US Department of Labor. However, the data in the document by WFH Research, which have been published monthly since May 2020, are not the only ones that disagree with the US Department of Labor.
Gold it seems. Partnership for New York City, an organization that seeks to promote the private sector in the Big Apple, published a report last February indicating that 52% of office workers in Manhattan worked in person between January 5 and 28. of this year, which represented an increase compared to the month of September 2022, when that percentage stood at 49%.
Silver is not However, only 9% of those workers came to their office five days a week. In fact, at the beginning of this year, 35% of the professionals surveyed went to the office three days a week, while 18% and 15% did so two and four days respectively.
hybrid dominance. At the same time, 82% of the companies surveyed indicated that the hybrid model would be their “predominant policy” this year. Of those who already apply it, 59% establish at least three days a week of work in the office.
The ‘tech’ sector, the least face-to-face. Additionally, the report of the organization founded in 1979 by David Rockefeller indicates a difference in the expansion of teleworking according to the sectors. While the percentage of attendance in the real estate sector was 80%, in the financial sector it was 59% and in the technological sector 49%.
confusions. Given all these figures, the conclusion reached by the US Department of Labor is surprising. In this sense, Nicholas Bloom, an economist at Stanford University, stated in statements to The New York Times that the formulation of the question regarding telecommuting in the questionnaire prepared by the Department of Labor could have confused the people surveyed.
The year of the hybrid model. Despite the figures from the Department of Labor, the truth is that the rest of the studies show that the hybrid regime is strengthening to the detriment of the complete teleworking model. In fact, the plans of the big American companies are in that line. Disney, Amazon, Snap, General Motors, Apple and Salesforce are some of the companies that plan to maintain a hybrid work regime in 2023.
The cotton test. Finally, another piece of information indicates the good health that the hybrid model currently enjoys. A study recently published by the National Bureau of Economic Research of the US pointed out that at the beginning of the year, job offers with some form of telecommuting exceeded 10% of all offers published in Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States. In addition, the report noted that this trend “seems to be on the rise in these five countries.”
Imagen: Nick Fewings / Unsplash
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