The growth of remote jobs during the pandemic
Remote employment opportunities have been soaring since the beginning of the pandemic. Today, around 16% of companies around the world have become fully remote. This is about a 200% increase from the amount of remote work before the pandemic.
The 16% is currently lead by some of the top, richer countries, like Australia, UK, Switzerland, and US. As more companies are transitioning to remote work at a very fast pace, we’ll see the numbers rise as more of the developing countries adapt to the new norm.
The number of queries searched into Google about remote work has also seen a massive rise since the pandemic. Searches regarding remote work spiked to an all-time high in mid March of 2020, just 2 months into the pandemic. This was a whopping 600% increase of the search term from what has been recorded before the pandemic!
Since the all-time high, search queries related to remote work have been consistently maintaining a 300% increase to date. This data shows interest in remote work from people all over the world, which will likely continue driving more applications to remote jobs, as these people learn they can use their digital skills independent of their location.
Companies establishing remote employment policies
Remote work policy is being introduced by many major companies now. Facebook, Coinbase, Quora, etc are some of the top companies that have reportedly announced their transition to a fully remote employment system.
They’re joining the race with Apple, which has been a fully remote company for some time now. And as the pandemic is slowly easing, the companies are also providing their employees the freedom to work from the office as well if they wish to.
These companies are the public face of the growing remote work trend, and lead the 16% of companies around the world that have already announced they'll be fully remote.
Companies announcing back-to-the-office policies
On the other hand, there are companies that have started insisting employees to go back to the office. The CEO of Netflix, Reed Hastings, said in an interview that he’s not a fan of remote employment. He also stated that he’s keen on bringing the employees back to the office when things go back to safety.
David Soloman, the CEO of the financial services company Goldman Sachs, also mentioned in an interview that he expects most of his employees back to the office by the end of the year. Even after the win-win system that remote employment opportunities are capable of, it is really disheartening to see massive companies follow the traditional norm.
Remote Work vs Office For Employees
A survey conducted by Ipsos for the World Economic Forum proved that the majority of the workforce prefers remote employment opportunities. The survey was conducted among 12,500 employed people in 29 countries. Around 70% of the participants voted for remote work.
30% of the people that opted for remote work also mentioned that they will even quit their job if they are forced to work from the office again. The remaining 30% of the participants voted to work in offices. For the majority, missing social interactions contributed as the main reason why they prefer office over working from home.
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