The post-pandemic days of employees having the upper hand appear to be over. With labor shortages waning, bosses are back in command.
The Wall Street Journal reports that large companies are tightening remote-work policies, shrinking travel budgets, and cutting back on benefits, highlighting a shift in the balance of power between employers and employees.
Pandemic-induced labor shortages from 2020–2022 pushed wages up sharply, and employees who left one job could easily find another. Now, the ratio of vacant jobs to unemployed workers has dropped from a record 2 in 2022 to 1.1 in November.
“Quiet cutting” — employers reducing jobs without announcing formal cuts through tactics like ending remote work — is now more prevalent than “quiet quitting,” where workers slacked off rather than resigning.

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