Balance of power shifts back toward bosses

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Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. On the surface, the job market looks as strong as ever. Beneath the surface, workers are getting a very different message: Their bosses are back in command.

Big companies are tightening remote-work policies, shrinking travel budgets and cutting back on benefits. On Friday, JPMorgan Chase told employees that most hybrid workers would have to come back to the office five days a week starting in March. Amazon.com ordered employees back to the office full-time starting this month, and Dell Technologies did the same for its sales team last fall.

Companies are slashing perks such as college-tuition assistance and time off for a sick pet. The moves show how the balance of power between employers and employees has shifted as the labor market has gone from white-hot to merely solid. From 2020 to 2022, pandemic labor shortages pushed wages up sharply, and those who left one job could easily find another.

The rate at which workers quit surged, and unemployment fell in early 2023 to 3.4%, the lowest in more than 50 years. Unemployment has since risen to 4.1% in December. Meanwhile, the ratio of vacant jobs to jobless workers has fallen from a record of 2 in 2022 to 1.1 in November.

The job market is still, by any metric, healthy. Indeed, vacancies have risen since September. Jobs grew by a surprisingly strong 256,000 in December from November and gains averaged 186,000 a month in 2024.

But 76% of the job growth in the past year has been in healthcare and education, leisure and hospitality, and government. In fields such as finance, information, and professional and business services, job growth has been far weaker. While a shift in leverage to employers might have shown up in layoffs or wage cuts