The proportion of jobs offering remote working has dropped for the fifth month in a row as businesses accelerate their return to the office, new figures show.
Just 12 percent of jobs being advertised in September were for positions offering remote working, compared to 16 percent in January.
This marks the lowest proportion of jobs being advertised as remote since September 2021, when the job market took off again after the impact of the coronavirus pandemic.
The figures, produced by jobs site LinkedIn, also found the 75 percent of executives intend to reduce homeworking, driven by the poor economic outlook, The Telegraph reports.
Managing Director for LinkedIn Europe Josh Graff told the paper: ‘The balance of power is starting to shift back to employers as economic storm clouds gather and hiring slows.
‘We’re already seeing companies freeze hiring and request that employees return to the office.’
He added: ‘Flexibility will increasingly become a survival issue for many businesses. Companies that pull back on flexible working and learning and development risk demotivating their workforce and pushing people to competitors that offer more attractive options.’
Managing Director for LinkedIn Europe Josh Graff said the site is seeing employees freeze hiring and ask workers to come back into the office
According to the figures from LinkedIn 75 percent of executives want their employees to return permanently to the office
It comes after statistics earlier this year showed that more than one in three Londoners were working from home between January and March.
This equated to just under two million employees, thought to include 367,000 commuters who had previously travelled from a different region of the country to work in the capital.
Despite the drop in posts being advertised as remote-based, UK employees still want to work from home, LinkedIn found.
Although the roles made up 12 percent of available posts, they attracted 20 percent of all applications.
But the UK remains second in the world for the number of work-from-home roles behind the US, the study found.
It comes after business leaders warned of a risk to worker productivity of homeworking is allowed to continue. Writing in the Telegraph in March this year, Sir James Dyson said that the UK economy ‘cannot afford such a lackadaisical approach’.
Sir James said: ‘The Government ignores the fact that for many companies, especially creative businesses such as Dyson, this [homeworking] kills essential learning and collaboration, stunts development of our people, prevents access to vital equipment and laboratories, and undermines the security of our intellectual property.’
But while larger companies appear to be pushing for a full return to the office, some small businesses look set to persevere with homeworking due to the economic crisis an cost of renting an office space.
Firms with fewer than 50 employees save an average of almost £4,000 a month by not having to pay for an office, said Hitachi Capital Business Finance.
They are more likely to work entirely from home well into next year, said the report.
A survey of more than 1,000 small business owners found that one in four had plans to continue working entirely from home until at least April next year, while a similar number were planning hybrid working.
Joanna Morris of Hitachi Capital Business Finance said: ‘As the worst of the pandemic hopefully begins to fade, and the option of returning to a fixed workplace is put back on the table once again, we might expect to see most taking up this option and returning to ‘normal’.
‘However, this research reminds us that it may not be the perfect solution for everyone.
‘As with every business decision that owners make, particularly over the past 18 months, a range of factors need to be taken into consideration first, with the bottom line understandably often given a heavier weighting.
‘The one positive that has come from this particularly challenging period has been the requirement to be far more flexible and open minded than ever before, with changes to the business that will reap benefits in the long term.’