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Tina Sawyer: In 2026, labor shortages are expected to widen throughout the country. But according to a recent study by a northwest Michigan economic development agency, remote and hybrid working opportunities are expected to increase.
I recently spoke with Networks Northwest regional director Robert Carson in Traverse City. His team released new findings on the state of remote and hybrid work across 10 counties in Northwest Michigan.
Carson began the conversation by explaining why they started this project with a survey.
Robert Carson: We really wanted to get a gauge as to the current status of remote work regionally. We have been monitoring data sources and trends that are monitored at the national level. And we wanted to see if there was alignment between our employers and employees as it pertains to remote work in relation to the national trends that we had been reviewing.
TS: I understand you had 800 respondents to this survey?
RC: We did.
TS: What were the findings from that?
RC: So it's fairly interesting. I do want to add beyond just the digital survey that we did do focus groups in four different areas of our region that align with our local economic development organizations. Those partner groups of ours assisted with this process by hosting focus groups in person. So the survey and those focus group findings displayed that we are aligning with what we see in the national studies. What we're finding is that although remote work has been fairly stable with a slight decline, it is moving more towards a hybrid model rather than a fully remote model. Here within our region, we found that professional science, scientific and technical services, healthcare and social assistance, and manufacturing aligned with those same thresholds or percentage of remote or hybrid workers as what we're seeing nationally.
TS: Having these findings in front of you now, what is the consensus like? How do you move forward from this knowing what you know now?
RC: Well, the plan itself offers some recommendations and actions for community leaders and investors, and it also contains actions for employers and workforce development professionals working to effectively align skills of our workforce for occupations that tend to support or allow hybrid or remote work. It looked to support recruiting efforts for them as employees and ultimately their employers who are recognizing the benefits of allowing remote and hybrid work. Setting very clear expectations for remote work policies having additional contingency plans in place for issues such as power outages.
TS: I know that in that 10 county range, there's a lot of rural areas. And in those areas, I mean, is there broadband available to everyone to be able to participate in a remote setup?
RC: There is not broadband everywhere currently, but there are plans in place right now and fiber being laid where we are optimistic that we will see you know, 80% to 90% fiber broadband coverage within the next 10 years.
TS: Robert, final question. Are there any other future studies that are planned to follow up on this particular survey?
RC: Yes, we would continue to gather data from the national level to monitor where the trends are continuing to head. And then I would venture that we would look probably several years out from now, three, five years to maybe bring remote workers and hybrid workers and reconvene them to see where we stand. And we would like to see if that is going to continue to follow whatever the national trends display here out several years from now.
TS: And that was Robert Carson from Networks Northwest of Traverse City.
