Are Remote Jobs Going Away in 2024?

The age of remote work might be coming to an end, experts say, and this could have a significant impact on both how American workers approach their careers and how companies look to hire.

A new report from MyPerfectResume found 45 percent of workers predicted the number of remote job openings will drop in 2024.

Already, mega companies like Amazon, Apple and Disney have issued partial if not full return to office policies, and many workers nationwide are bracing for major updates to their work-from-home lives.

In a fall Resume Builder survey of 1,000 company leaders, 90 percent indicated they planned to return workers to the office by the end of 2024.

The changes are reflecting a shifted labor market. The labor market has now tightened since the post pandemic early days, which saw droves of Americans leaving their jobs in what many dubbed “The Great Resignation.”

For 2024, 80 percent of the almost 2,000 employees surveyed by MyPerfectResume said it’s looking to be the complete opposite of that, instead calling it the year of “The Big Stay.”

“As we navigate post-pandemic realities, companies are reassessing their long-term operational models,” Miriam Groom, an HR strategist and the senior director for talent management at KPMG in advisory services, told Newsweek. “This reassessment may lead to a more hybrid approach rather than a complete reversal to pre-pandemic norms.”

Groom said the number of remote jobs will significantly vary by industry. While tech, marketing and digital content jobs will likely still offer plenty of work from home opportunities, healthcare, retail and manufacturing largely will not.

“This doesn’t necessarily mean a return to the old ways, but rather an integration of remote work with traditional office setups to create a more adaptive and resilient work environment,” Groom said.

Will There Be Pushback?

Some question how much power employers actually hold in mandating returns to the office, however. During the pandemic, it became commonplace to expect that a company would offer a hybrid, if not totally remote, option as a way to remain competitive for top applicants.

Nearly all, or 95 percent of working professionals want some type of remote work, and 63 percent said remote work is the most important aspect of their job, even more than salary, a recent FlexJobs report found.

“If jobs that allow workers to work remotely fall this year it will be because the candidates, not the employers, make that choice,” David Lewis, the CEO of HR consulting firm OperationsInc, told Newsweek. “It is clear that a strategy whereby the employer insists that work happens in the office is an utter failure for most.”

Still, as time goes on, Lewis believes it will actually be the employees leading the way to the end of the remote work era.

“They will want the social component,” Lewis said. “They also will start to feel like they may be hurting their careers by working exclusively from home.”

There could also be several complications down the road as remote work cements itself as an option within a company’s overall hybrid work structure.

Lewis foresees a concept of “remote worker discrimination” emerging, and companies may have to grapple with lawsuits in which an employee sues them for allegedly passing them over for promotions or judging their performance more harshly because they didn’t come into the office enough.

Still, until the 3.7 percent unemployment rate becomes much higher, beyond 4 percent, Lewis said employees will be the ones deciding on whether remote work disappears or not. And in the meantime, companies will need to allow their workers the flexibility they’re demanding.

“Employers who try to buck that tide and force folks back to the office will lose that battle,” Lewis said. “Instead, the smart ones will continue to make being in the office an option, but making the days you do come in ones that make you want to come back.”