The Bureau of Labor Statistics has just released the results of a survey of private-sector establishments about their response to the COVID-19 pandemic, which began two years ago. The survey was conducted between July and September 2021 and found that 34.5 percent of firms nationally increased telework.
This is the same percentage as in Georgia; in South Carolina, it was 31.2 percent. More than 60 percent of firms plan on keeping the increases permanent once the pandemic is over. Firms also increased their offering of flexible work hours (24.6 percent nationally, 24.1 percent in Georgia, and 22.5 percent in South Carolina).
Firms also responded by increasing wages. 14.5 percent of firms nationally increased pay. In Georgia, it was 15.0 percent and 13.8 percent in South Carolina. Industries hardest hit by the pandemic increased wages the most. Accommodation and food services base wages increased 34.3 percent and healthcare by 19.4 percent. Retail and manufacturing also saw higher than average increases.
Given the health issues associated with the pandemic, and also the labor supply problems, there was an increase in the use of self-service kiosks. Even my beloved Publix introduced them in the past few weeks at their National Hills store.
In total, the increase was 2.2 percent, but in accommodation and food services it increased 6.4 percent. Other sectors seeing larger than average increases were utilities, health care, arts, entertainment, and recreation. Richmond County no longer accepts cash to attend high school sports, instead using the GoFan app. Overall, automation in general has increased 4.2 percent.
The pandemic has certainly changed some business practices, and many will remain once the pandemic becomes merely endemic. Whether these changes represent an improvement, depends on the tradeoffs.
Many workers will benefit from increased work flexibility, especially women, who are twice as likely as men to say they are only looking for telework. However, teleworkers may be discriminated against in promotion opportunities. If most of these teleworkers are women (32 percent of college-educated women with children want to work remotely, compared to 23 percent of college-educated men), this may increase the gender pay gap and other forms of gender discrimination.
A study (https://www.gsb.stanford.edu/faculty-research/working-papers/does-working-home-work-evidence-chinese-experiment) completed before the pandemic, suggested that teleworkers were 50 percent less likely to receive performance-based promotions. Teleworkers are “out of sight, out of mind” which could be detrimental to those workers, especially women.
