The power has swung back to employers—and workers are paying for it in benefits, flexibility, and leverage |
The power has swung back to employers—and workers are paying for it in benefits, flexibility, and leverage
Employers have regained their power over employees, and the effects are already showing up.
During the peak of the Great Resignation in November 2021, 4.5 million workers left their jobs voluntarily. As of last month, that number was about 3 million as employees hesitated to quit at a time when job searches can drag on for months. Workers’ optimism for finding a job is lower today than during the pandemic in 2020, according to a report by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
Data from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York found that workers were even less optimistic about finding a job today than they were in 2020. The average worker said they had less than a 50% chance of finding a job in today’s economy, according to the Fed data.
Even those who have a job are now having to deal with cuts to benefits and perks, if not mass layoffs, as AI advances and investors pressure companies to cut costs. Many are also forcing employees back to the office after years of flexible work and remote-work policies.
Employees who may not have tolerated such cuts in the past are now coping with them, according to a January survey from MyPerfectResume.
The survey of 1,000 adults found that only 7% of employees would quit their jobs over a mandatory return-to-office policy. That’s compared to 51% who said they would quit over the same issue in January 2025. More than 70% of workers also predicted they would have the same or less bargaining power to push for flexible work policies in 2026 than in 2025, the survey found.
“The era of employee leverage has ended,” Jasmine Escalera, a career expert at MyPerfectResume, said in a statement.
Office mandates lead the way
One of the starkest reminders that the workplace has shifted is the change in companies’ approach to remote work. A report from July by commercial real estate company Jones Lang LaSalle Inc.........