Fifty-seven percent of Americans vacationed in the past year, the highest rate since 2009, per data from Allianz Partners USA. But look deeper, and here’s what you’ll find:
- 60% of US professionals are working more on vacations, according to consulting firm Korn Ferry.
- 63% are taking shorter-than-usual vacations.
- 37% log on multiple times per day during vacations, up from 19% in 2021.
No better way to unwind than Microsoft Teams at the beach.
What about other trends?
In 2021, Microsoft Teams saw a 42% rise in chats per person after regular work hours.
- Flexibility is great; people save nearly six hours weekly by commuting less. But they’re also spending half of that time… doing more work.
And let’s not forget — in the US, 23% of private-sector workers don’t even get paid vacation. It’s hard to relax if it means no dinner.
Now, let’s layer on a bunch more worker news.
With all this talk about remote work, it seems we HAVE hit equilibrium. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ latest report, just 7.1% of American workers teleworked because of the pandemic in June, down from 15.4% in January.
- That figure has been hovering around 7%-8% since April, suggesting we’ve hit an equilibrium point. Remote work rates vary significantly based on industry.
- Per BLS, 20% of “information” workers, 19.7% of those in finance/insurance, and 17.6% of those in “professional and technical services” worked from home last month.
That aligns with a June Eden report; nearly two-thirds of IT employees reported that the inability to work remotely is a job deal-breaker. According to the report, respondents who valued flexible work environments cited the ability to handle at-home and caretaking responsibilities as benefits.
For tech employees, flex time and slack time provide the flexibility they crave. And for tech leaders, flexible work initiatives keep employees happy and productivity high.
Skills demand appears to be shifting – way down annually are web development needs, messaging, and communications, and up are management and process skills.
A Gartner study shows that 51% of organizations plan to raise wages only for top performers in the face of inflation. The study polled 130 CEOs and CFOs, asking how their organization plans to adjust compensation for salaried employees to match inflation. The business leaders had to choose between all employees or top performing employees; they also had to choose between selected — markets where inflation was the most severe — or all markets.
Nearly 25% of respondents voted for the most restrictive approach, offering pay increases to only top performers within selected markets. Another 27% voted for raises for only top-performing salaried employees in all markets.
In an analysis by Insider, it appears pay is also normalizing across regions. Salaries in Washington, DC — which used to be 15% lower than those in San Francisco — are now virtually on par with the Bay Area. And thanks to big compensation jumps in Boston, Los Angeles, Boulder, Chicago, Austin, and Denver, salaries at tech startups in those cities are also within 10% of San Francisco’s levels.
The Great Salary Convergence is playing out across the white-collar workforce. In Austin, Charlotte, and Milwaukee, salaries for office jobs have soared by 20% or more since the end of 2019, according to LaborIQ, another compensation platform. During that same period, more than a dozen other metropolitan areas have seen pay jumps in the double digits. In San Jose, meanwhile, white-collar salaries in the heart of Silicon Valley have barely budged, increasing by a measly 1.7%.
And let’s note the piece by Insider – about the increase in firms that do layoffs for other companies. Those layoff specialists say business is booming.
Why do we care?
Remote work equilibrium seemed like an important data point. “New normal” is horrible phrasing… but equilibrium seems viable. At this point, organizations fighting it looks… dumb. Just saying.
Now, onto the wage data. That’s the headline – wages are normalizing too, and geography is becoming far less of a factor. You might have thought you could hire in alternate cities to save money – nope. And despite all the noise about workers losing their power…. With unemployment being what it is, that doesn’t seem to be the case. Those layoffs –seem to be in companies that got bloated. Not companies executing on the basics.
For most, your planning should include that salaries are competitive and just going up. You’re going to need to solve for that.