U.S. Office employees still have upper-hand on flexible work options (for now)

• Where does the leverage lie after three straight post-pandemic Labor Day Weekends – with employees, or employers when it comes to return-to-office (RTO) efforts?   
• The office worker quits-to-layoffs and discharges ratio measures how much sway employees have relative to their employers; the higher the ratio, the greater the employee leverage. Historically, the ratio is 1.1 during economic recessions, but the sudden economic shock from the regional banking crisis in March 2023 caused the ratio to drop in anticipation of an economic recession that has not transpired.
• Today, the healthy 2.1 ratio shows us that employees have leverage, though the 35.6% decline in office job postings since March 2022 means that employers could begin to increasingly enforce RTO mandates.

September 21, 2023

Additional resources

• All the latest U.S. Office market trends
• Heightened U.S. return-to-office mandates should lead to stronger near-term demand
• Office employment and job posting data paint different complexions on the U.S. economy. Which is more telling?

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