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Remote work is harder to come by as companies push for return to office

https://www.npr.org/2023/09/01/1196731284/return-to-office-rto-hybrid-remote-work-from-home-zoom

Three and a half years after the start of the pandemic, employers are getting serious about increasing the amount of time workers spend in the office and trying new strategies to overcome resistance.

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crowsby

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So I do analysis on this type of data as part of my role at an online job board. Based on our data, a couple things stand out:

Overall job volume is down about 40% year-over-year. So the market in general is a lot tighter.
The proportion of remote roles is dropping, but slowly. A year ago about 70% of our roles were fully remote; now it's about 60%.
The proportion of fully in-office roles has actually remained relatively stagnant, generally floating around 15%-20% at any given time. They're also very difficult roles to fill because A) they're limited to actual geographies and B) they are nobody's first choice
Between February 2023 and now, the median # of applications we get per role has spiked sharply; particularly with remote roles. These roles unsurprisingly remain jobseekers' first choice, and since they're not limited by geography, tend to pull in a_much_ wider talent pool, especially since the overall number and proportion of remote roles continues to shrink.

So what I'm seeing is many of these remote roles becoming supplanted by hybrid roles, which has pros and cons. They're still limited by the same geographic constraints as in-office roles, since you're not going to be applying to a hybrid role across the country, after all. So you'll see less variety of employers. The advantage is that if there is a hybrid role that looks appealing to you, that you'll be facing a lot less competition than you would for a fully remote role.