“Can You Hear Me Now?”: How WFH Transformed Labor Markets

At the onset of the pandemic, working from home became the new reality. At a time when more and more employers are reopening their offices and asking their employees to go back to in-person work, we are looking at how remote job postings evolved and how it transformed the labor markets.

In early 2020, the share of remote job postings quickly increased during the initial lockdowns. More interestingly, however, the trend has since continued upwards —the share of job postings that mention “remote” has increased from 1-2% pre-pandemic to 8-9% today.

But not all job postings are created equal. As we track the posted salaries of in-person and remote positions, we see that the difference in average salaries is rising, reflecting that higher paying jobs are more likely to go remote.

In order to understand the dynamics behind this, we next look at the industries and occupations that have the highest increases in shares of remote job postings.

Unsurprisingly, the Computer Software industry experienced the biggest transition from in person to remote positions, with an impressive 700% increase between early 2020 and now.

MDs seeing an increase in the share of remote work reflects the transition towards telehealth. Most occupations that shifted towards work-from-home are high paying jobs, which might explain the growing salary differential between remote and in-person positions.

Key Takeaways:

• The share of remote job postings has grown steadily since March 2020 from 1-2% to 8-9%.
• Remote job postings are more common for higher paying positions.
• The Computer Software industry saw the biggest transition to working from home. MDs top the list of occupations transitioning to remote with the rise in telehealth.