The same percentage of employed people who worked remotely in 2023 is the same as the previous year, a survey found
Don’t call it work from home any more, just call it work. According to new data, what once seemed like a pandemic necessity has become the new norm for many Americans.
Every year, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) releases the results of its American time use survey, which asks Americans how much time they spend doing various activities, from work to leisure.
The most recent survey results, released at the end of June, show that the same percentage of employed people who did at least some remote work in 2023 is the same percentage as those who did remote work in 2022.
In other words, it’s the first stabilization in the data since before the pandemic, when only a small percentage of workers did remote work, and a sign that remote work is here to stay.
Optionality is key, that’s what I’m worried about losing in the next market downturn. Letting people work from home is great.
Forcing people to work from home to save on office real estate costs, preferences older and wealthier workers who don’t need to build work relationships and can afford a home with an office.
In my experience, job hunting early in your career is a pure fishing expedition. You’ve got to constantly be out there looking, you take even the small jobs (I started doing software at a tiny health care IT company for $17/hr while friends were making $30/hr at better firms), and try to change jobs every three years until you find your ceiling.
The early shitty jobs give you an opportunity to network and make you more attractive to recruiters. They also tend to be much more friendly to “work from home” because they hate maintaining an office as much as you hate driving to one.
The bigger corporate positions will have departments you can move between if you don’t like where you currently are but don’t want to leave the firm. But then you have to start making trade off between pay/position and work from home.
When I was starting out I had to create a fake company website with fake emails to use as references. Finally found a company that bit (off of Craigslist). I think the guy who was hiring knew, but was impressed with the effort.
But once I got my foot in the door things got much easier. Doesn’t take me very long to find work now days.
