While the massive increase in remote positions was predicated on public health, some experts think it will be impossible to return to the way things were. In September, almost 10 percent of online job postings mentioned some form of remote work—up six times relative to September 2019. This trend isn’t slowing down. In fact, it started long before the pandemic. The share of remote workers has doubled every 15 years, according to a study conducted by economists Jose Barrero, Nicholas Bloom, Shelby Buckman, and Steven Davis. However, the pandemic did dramatically increase the growth of remote work. At its peak, more than 60 percent of total workdays in the US were performed from home, and experts think that remote work will continue into the future. “The pandemic has started a revolution in how we work, and our research shows working from home can make firms more productive and employees happier,” Bloom wrote in June 2021. “But like all revolutions, this is difficult to navigate.”