For the most part, the wars over remote workers returning to the office have subsided and "structured hybrid policies are now the norm," according to commercial real estate firm JLL. Some remote workers have been called back to the office full-time, while others are required to show up three to four days per week.
Highlights from JLL's Workforce Preference Barometer:
Workers in the Middle East and APAC are more accepting of employers' hybrid policies than workers in Europe.
85% of workers in Europe are in compliance with their employers' hybrid policy, compared to just 74% of U.S. workers.
JLL distinguishes two groups of workers when it comes to adherence to return-to-office policies: compliers and non-compliers.
Workers who comply with their employers' hybrid policy "value stability over amenities, training or flexibility." They are typically older than non-compliers and "are more likely to be from Europe (Italy, France, Belgium, the UK) and to work in the public sector."
A subset of workers don't care about the return-to-office policy -- they'll do what they please, according to JLL. The "empowered non-complier" is a "certain kind of valuable worker who flouts return to office whenever they feel like it." Non-compliers are "typically younger," and are often caregivers. They are "concentrated in tech roles in North America" and tend to be high-performing and "possess the skillset to navigate job changes, placing them at a higher risk of leaving." Why are they non-compliant? Because they can be. Non-compliance with hybrid policies is "less a rejection than a calculated decision based on their sense of empowerment," according to JLL.
Read more via Fortune, JLL
Degree requirements for U.S. jobs have increased since early 2024, an indication that employers are raising educational standards despite increased discussion of skills-first hiring, according to Indeed's Hiring Lab.
Overall degree requirements up from recent low: 19.3% of U.S. job postings required a bachelor's degree or higher in November 2025, up from 16.6% in November 2023, though still slightly below pre-pandemic levels.
Within-occupation requirements rising: While "some level of volatility in degree requirements over time can be attributed to changes in occupational mixes," Indeed found that "a substantial proportion is being driven by increasing requirements within occupations," representing "genuine increases in formal education requirements rather than occupational composition shifts."
Geographic polarization is stark: After adjusting for occupational mix differences, 22.4% of jobs in Washington, D.C. required a bachelor's degree or higher in November 2025, compared to just 10.6% in Alaska—the highest and lowest in the nation.
Coastal metros demand more credentials: Washington, D.C., Boston, New York, and Chicago all show at least 20% of job postings requiring a bachelor's degree or higher both before and after adjusting for job title mix.
Other regions show lower requirements: MSAs with the lowest degree requirements after occupational adjustment include Myrtle Beach, SC (7.5%), Port St. Lucie, FL (8.5%), McAllen, TX (8.7%), Poughkeepsie, NY (8.8%), and Anchorage, AK (8.8%).
Majority of postings remain degree-free: 51% of job postings do not ask for any formal education requirements, though recent studies show roles without formal degree requirements often still hire candidates with college degrees.
Read more via Indeed Hiring Lab
Employees find themselves with only 2-3 hours of uninterrupted focus time per day due to increased meetings, constant notifications, and excessive tool-switching, according to a new report by Hubstaff.
Highlights from Hubstaff's 2026 Global Benchmarks Report analyzing data from 140,000+ workers across 17,000 organizations:
Meeting volume has doubled: The average person now sits in twice as many meetings per year, with organizations running almost six times as many meetings compared to two years ago. Roughly a quarter of all meeting time occurs during peak deep work hours, while nearly a third happens outside standard business hours.
When a worker's day is fragmented by meetings, messages and tool switching, real focus is out of reach."
Hybrid teams struggle most with focus: Hybrid teams reported the lowest share of focus time at just 31% of hours in deep work, compared to 41% for remote teams and 45% for in-office teams.
Managers and leaders face severe fragmentation: Managers and team leaders average just 27% of their hours in focused work.
Tool overload creates constant switching: Workers use an average of 18 different apps per day, with employees in sales, marketing and HR roles averaging even higher.
Read more via Hubstaff
Employees receiving moderate to high levels of paid time off show meaningfully lower resignation rates, while minimal PTO offers have little retention benefit. That's according to longitudinal research analyzing over 32,000 observations across 18 years from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth.
Minimal PTO shows no retention benefit: Employees receiving 1-5 paid days off per year showed little difference in voluntary resignation rates compared to those with no PTO.
Moderate and high PTO reduce turnover: Employees who received moderate (6-10) or high (11 or more) paid days off annually demonstrated meaningful reductions in voluntary resignations.
Researchers noted gender differences: While findings held across both samples, women responded significantly more to higher levels of paid days off than men in terms of retention.
Read more via Journal of Strategy and Management
