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‘The new normal’: work from home is here to stay, US data shows

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.

WhyDoYouPersist ,

From someone who willingly goes into the office almost every day, it’s still quite obvious that for the good of the world, the less people going in overall, the better. Better for the environment, disabled people, mental health, and I imagine better for housing markets (though I’m no economist).

Samvega ,

Is it better for the feelings of rich people? Because that’s what’s important.

sudo ,

Worse for the corporate real estate investors though. And that’s why they won’t stop pushing to get people back into offices.

foggy ,

The big companies fighting it and also laying off hundreds of thousands of skilled workers are in for a wakeup call in the coming decade or two. Especially given that they’re more prime targets for cyber attacks.

Something something invisible hand.

BlueLineBae ,
@BlueLineBae@midwest.social avatar

My company is making people come back to the office. Then they started laying loads of people off. Now one of our key initiatives for the year is to improve employee retention. Hmmmmmmmmm…

nickwitha_k ,

RTO is just being used for constructive dismissal these days.

Reverendender ,

I wish i could continuously fuck up up, over and over and over, and still get raises, bonuses, and golden parachutes.

lennybird ,
@lennybird@lemmy.world avatar

I’m curious how this impacts decentralization in terms of population density.

You could cure traffic congestion, repopulate rural communities with less conservative folk, and generally improve overall life satisfaction if more jobs became remote and access to high speed internet in rural communities became more common.

Would arguably reduce housing costs on average?

cygnus ,
@cygnus@lemmy.ca avatar

Would arguably reduce housing costs on average?

(Canadian here with some knowledge of the industry)

It hasn’t reduced prices on average, but it does flatten out the distribution across the country. I would say that for small towns the short-term effect has been overall negative, because it drives up housing prices in regions that historically have lower wages, and also ties up the construction industry and drives up prices there as well, so it becomes more difficult to both buy an existing house and build a new one. The real winners in the equation are the remote workers who are no longer tied to big cities and can use their “big city money” to buy pretty much whatever they want in a small town.

Long-term (after things have stabilized, maybe a decade, and assuming the “immigrants” stick around) it will be more positive, because the small towns’ tax base and demographics will be rejuvenated. Short term infrastructure pains are real though.

lennybird ,
@lennybird@lemmy.world avatar

Super insightful comment and makes complete sense, thank you.

In America I’m curious how it could impact the Electoral map (especially considering the effects of the Electoral College itself).

RaoulDook ,

It already reduces housing costs for those who move away from high cost of living areas. Also, access to high speed internet is already common in rural areas of the USA. It wasn’t 10 years ago but we’ve made a lot of progress.

lennybird ,
@lennybird@lemmy.world avatar

I’m glad to hear. Better satellite internet seems to make it more viable, too. I didn’t have high speed internet the entire time growing up while all my friends in town had it. This up through 2007.

BlueLineBae ,
@BlueLineBae@midwest.social avatar

At my previous job, I had a coworker who was hired on after the office decided work from home would be permanent. Everyone in the office was originally from northern Illinois since that’s where the office was, but she lived in rural Iowa in a farm with her husband. She mentioned how she really wasn’t able to get a job like this previously as she would have to commute long distance to the city. And of course she and her husband can’t just pack up the farm and move it closer to her work. So you’re absolutely right! Work from home could very well be the thing that saves small communities that have been largely going off.

fuckwit_mcbumcrumble ,

Ideally you want the opposite. Sure not commuting to work saves a lot of emissions, but not driving in the first place is much better. Cities are far more energy efficient that spread out suburban housing.

Semi_Hemi_Demigod ,
@Semi_Hemi_Demigod@lemmy.world avatar

I definitely do not want to live in a city, especially if I don’t have to go into an office. Living and working in the same closet-sized apartment would drive me insane.

ogmios ,
@ogmios@sh.itjust.works avatar

Good for the people who want it. I just can’t imagine wanting my work so close to my personal space.

insaneinthemembrane ,

Yeah you need to compartmentalise well for it to work long term in a healthy way. A happy medium would be satellite offices or wework style allowances or something. Gives people more flexibility.

Kecessa ,

Depends on your setup, it allowed us to move to a more rural location and for the same price we have an extra room that’s used as an office and I barely go in there outside work hours

insaneinthemembrane ,

I keep coming back to how it’s beneficial for the corporate overlords financially to not have to have massive offices, overheads, and all those in office perks. This keeps me believing WFH is the future.

RagnarokOnline ,

Thank fuck

mecfs ,

Great news for disabled people. Gives us a much better chance at finding a job willing to hire us!

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