More than 75 percent of employees working at home during the economic lockdown would like to continue doing so to some degree, according to a survey by the IBM Institute for Business Value, with more than half saying they would choose it as their primary way to work.
More than 60 percent of corporate hiring managers told an Upwork survey they plan to expand home-working opportunities for employees after the lockdown ends.
Five hundred hiring managers contacted in late April are planning for 22 percent of their collective workforces to be working remotely in 2025, compared to 13 percent in late 2019.
Tech giants Facebook, Twitter, and Square have begun major initiatives to transition employees to home-based workers.
Telework allows companies to hire talent from around the world, not just where a corporation has an office. Remote work also enables corporations to adjust salaries to suit the cost of living where an employee lives and does not force workers to relocate to take advantage of job opportunities.
An economic analysis from the University of Chicago calculates that 37 percent of U.S. jobs can be done remotely. Jobs requiring a physical presence typically require less education, such as cab drivers and landscapers, and usually pay less than portable jobs.
TREND FORECAST: The shift to working at home will redefine economic ecosystems, especially in urban centers. Commuters buy lunch, gifts, clothes, gadgets, and other items in locales where they work; as workers stay home, downtown stores and restaurants will lose their traditional customer base and gas stations along commuter routes will see business plummet.
At the same time, owners of commercial real estate will face a reckoning as they slash rents to lure a shrinking base of tenants, forcing them to demand property tax concessions from cities that will struggle even more to maintain police, fire, and public works infrastructures.
