Bad news for remote workers as structured hybrid rises in the US by 17%

By Kirstie McDermott

When it comes to job opportunities in the U.S., it is getting harder to find fully remote roles, even within the traditionally flexible tech industry.

LinkedIn has crunched the numbers and says that “demand for remote work continues to outstrip supply heading into 2024”, according to its chief economist Karin Kimbrough, who says that just 10% of U.S. job postings on LinkedIn in December 2023 were for remote jobs — and those postings received 46% of all applications.

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That’s in tandem with the company’s research also finding that 29% of employees in the U.S. would prefer to work a completely remote model.

Different jobs have differing levels of take-up and demand when it comes to remote work. Forty one percent of software developers, for example, reported working fully remotely in Stack Overflow’s 2023 Developer Survey.

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According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) those remote working numbers are getting smaller year-over-year, even though many workers actively prefer it.

In August 2022, for example, 31.3% of women worked remotely, compared to only 21.6% last year. For men, the differences are even more noticeable, with 29.6% of men working remotely in 2022 compared to 17.7% in 2023.

Women are more likely to work remotely, according to the World Economic Forum (WEF), which notes that “the greater flexibility of remote work allows women to better handle non-work demands, especially those who are juggling family duties, whether it’s looking after children or caring for parents”.

In general, a clear trend is emerging as the bell curves downwards on remote work from an all-time high during the pandemic. As early as 2021, 14% of Fortune 100 companies issued return-to-office mandates. In 2023, Amazon, a strong supporter of remote working during the Covid-19 crisis, told its workers that they could be out of a job if they didn’t return to the office three times a week.

More recently, Dell announced a return-to-office policy that bars fully remote employees from promotions. It was only partially successful: data from July shows that almost 50% of its full-time U.S. workforce and one-third of international employees have continued to work remotely, despite the warning.

These are the outliers in the world of work, however, as a new gold standard is emerging. Many workers have come to value their time outside of work more than ever, and simply don’t want to be back at the office five days a week.

Many companies have acknowledged this, with a report showing that structured hybrid is now the most common model for U.S. companies, and involves working from home and in the office on a pre-set schedule. It is designed to promote collaboration while accommodating flexibility––now so important to so many workers.

Structured hybrid is on the rise

When you look at this year’s trends , structured hybrid is out in front. Data shows that 37% of U.S. companies are working this model, up from 20% in Q1 2023. That compares to 32% of companies offering fully flexible working, with 31% of companies insisting on workers being back in the office full-time.

Companies like this way of working because it offers predictability: managers know when teams will be in the office, so meetings and in person work can be scheduled. It also allows businesses to manage resources such as desk space, because that uncertainty is removed.

For many workers, rigidity around the days they do and don’t need to be in the office can be an issue, particularly for those with care-giving responsibilities, or who used the pandemic period as an opportunity to relocate. If the rest of your team is on site a set three days a week, it’s harder to make a case for why you want to be working from home.

Ultimately, if you’ve asked for more flexibility and been told that you need to conform to a structured hybrid model, it may be time to look for a new role at a company where true flexibility is on offer.

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