Employment Services NAICS 5613

Jun 18, 2025 - US Employees Are Working After Hours More

• US workers are increasingly putting in extra hours in the evening after their workday has ended as companies cut costs, slow new hiring, and ask existing employees to do more. According to data from Microsoft on the millions of workers who use its business applications, over the course of the last year meeting log-ins after 8 p.m. grew 16% and a third of workers returned to their inboxes after 10 p.m. Workers cite days filled with so many meetings, emails, and actual work that they don’t have enough time in the day to get everything done. Microsoft’s data showed the average worker gets 117 emails and 153 chats a day, and 30% of meetings cross time zones, all contributing to playing catch up after hours. The workloads have taken a toll with employee mentions of burnout on job site Glassdoor up 32% year over year in Q1, the highest level in 10 years.
• Recent college and high school graduates face a tough job market and are struggling to find work, despite an overall US unemployment rate of about 4%. For new college graduates looking for work, the unemployment rate is closer to 6.6% for the 12 months ending in May 2025. According to the US Labor Department, it is the highest level of unemployment for that group in a decade (minus the pandemic) and a 6% increase from the same period the year prior. By comparison, those ages 35 to 44 with a college degree have a 2.2% unemployment rate during that same stretch. An overall hiring slowdown in America in the face of economic worry about the economy is largely to blame. Hiring slowdowns don’t directly affect existing workers or always lead to layoffs, but they disproportionately hit those without a job, especially graduates looking for that first real job.

• With 20% of Americans working remotely, the ability to work from anywhere no longer ties workers to specific geographic regions with high costs of living, and some smaller cities are now offering cash and other incentives to remote workers who move there. Smaller cities with declining populations have little clout to attract new employers to their areas and are instead courting telecommuters to spur economic growth. According to a report from relocation company MakeMyMove, cities such as New Albany, Indiana; Texarkana, Texas; Mayfield, Kentucky; and Jacksonville, Illinois; are floating perks like $5,000 relocation bonuses, free co-working spaces, rotary club memberships, start up grants, and even meetings with the mayor. It’s a trend that could become more widespread as the one-fifth of the population who works remotely (per the Bureau of Labor Statistics) continues to grow.
• Employers in the US are increasingly hiring employees based on skills criteria and deemphasizing past job experience, according to global recruiting firm Hudson RPO. A survey of HR professionals in the US found that 60% of recruiters are placing more importance on transferable skills - capabilities that apply to different jobs and industries - than the historically standard educational and work experience qualifications. Workers who display transferable skills such as communications, leadership, and flexibility should have a leg up. The trend dovetails with data from consulting firm McKinsey & Company that says 90% of companies either currently have or will experience skills gaps in their workforce in the next five years. About 53% of employers told McKinsey they are tackling the problem by reskilling current employees, while the rest are relying more on skills-based hiring, shifting workers to different roles in an organization, and hiring more outside contractors.