Many Americans shifted to remote work virtually overnight, and today’s college students don’t expect the corporate world to ever fully return to 40-hour weeks spent in an office. Students largely see the future of work as a mix of remote and in-person work after they graduate.
A new survey of 2,000 undergraduates finds that a strong majority (90%) across lines of race, gender, and political leaning believe companies will remain more open to remote workers in a post-COVID world. However, a smaller majority (68%) believe companies will remain open to employees working on flexible schedules. And just 4 in 10 (38%) believe employees will keep dressing casually for work.
A majority (56%) of students say their preferred work situation after graduation is a hybrid of remote and in-office work. About one-third (37%) want to be fully in the office and just 8% want to be fully remote. White students (42%) are more likely than Hispanic (33%), Asian (26%), and Black (24%) students to want to be in the office full time.
Students of Color are More Open to Remote Work
What’s your ideal work situation after you graduate?
Among students who want to work in an office full time, 28% say it’s because their preferred career dictates that they go in every day, 37% say they prefer to go in every day, and 35% say it’s both. Female students are more likely than male students to say their chosen career dictates going in (34% vs. 19%), and less likely to say they want to go in every day (29% vs. 47%).
___________________________
Methodology: This survey was designed and conducted by College Pulse. Interviews were conducted among a sample of 2,000 full-time and part-time students attending four-year colleges or universities in the U.S. who are part of College Pulse’s American College Student Panel.
