Fascinating data from an IMF economist on the lasting, mostly positive effects of the explosion in remote work during the pandemic: • Preliminary data shows that US couples who both work from home at least one day a week have 0.3 to 0.5 more children (!!!) due to greater childcare flexibility • WFH peaked at 60% of working days during lockdowns, but has now settled to about 25%, which is still 5x versus pre-pandemic • Surveys from across US, Europe, and Asia show that employees value WFH at about 8% of their salary (as in, they value being able to work remotely the same as an 8% raise), which makes sense given commuting takes up about 10% of working hours • ~2 million more disabled people are working versus pre-pandemic, largely due to the flexibility of WFH • Prime-age female employment has risen 2% faster than equivalent male employment since the pandemic, likely due to flexibility WFH allows • Office capacity is down 50% since pre-pandemic, suggesting much commercial office space will need to be repurposed • Commute traffic volumes in US and Europe have fallen by 10%, causing morning commute traffic to move 2-3 mph faster and pollution to drop • Studies show roughly no impact on productivity, since positive and negative effects offset each other on average • Impact of fully remote work, which been adopted by about 10% of workers, on performance depends greatly on how well it’s managed and what kind of position it is Link to article below 👇