Echoing reports of ongoing labor shortages, a new survey confirms that a vast majority of organizations are facing extreme difficulty finding and retaining qualified workers. But, the survey reveals, these challenges are no longer being driven solely by a lack manual services workers, as previous trends have indicated. Rather, office workers are now significantly harder to both find and retain than just one year ago.

Indeed, The Conference Board survey found that 84 percent of organizations hiring professional and office workers are struggling to find talent, an increase from 60 percent in April 2021. And the percent of organizations struggling to retain office workers more than doubled in the last year, from 28 percent to 64 percent.

The survey of more than 175 US Human Resource executives also underscores the staying power of remote and hybrid work, including the use of these work models to address hiring challenges. For example, organizations willing to hire fully remote workers have increased six-fold since the start of the pandemic.