Unfortunately for me, I was a remote worker already (worked there for a month shy of 6 years). Hopefully, my position (React/Node FS Dev) is in high enough demand after all this to resume working remotely with a comfortable salary. I've already had offers for remote but they require me to relocate after the pandemic is over, which is really clogging up the job boards.
I understand it's a shitty thing to do, but at the end of the day your health/sanity is more important than some companies. If you have a good manager/coworkers you can even get them to bat for you to stay, as a remote worker.
Because, as you said, it's a shitty thing to do. I have the skills, experience, and finances to find a job where we can have a mutually beneficial relationship without trying to pull one over on them.
I'm sorry to hear about that but I'm sure you'll do great w/a react/node background I'm not even involved in front-end but I know quite a few places always hiring good react/node devs (albeit they might be in a freeze right now).
Luckily I am based in the US, but I am unable to travel (for personal reasons) which is also an interview dead-end for a lot of companies that want you to come spend a week for initiation and meet up a few times a year.
Neither. This is based on seeing a large number of companies, who are seamlessly capable of working and delivering products remotely (e.g. SaaS) moving to salary reductions, furloughs, and layoffs.
That's anecdotal data among companies and colleagues I interact with, but there's enough of it that it's compelling to me.
If you lived in North Korea, and in six months, you had a few friends die of COVID, while the government told you things were under control, you'd have no data or statistics, but you'd know there's something up.
That said, we do have data, but not broken out in that way. Best we have for data are unemployment claims.
And not all of the behavior is rational. Investing during downturns is much cheaper than during upturns. A year ago, top ML people cost north of a megabuck a year. Inflation reduces labor costs further. Companies who up investment now are likely to come out of the crisis stronger than ones who cut back, assuming money is available (either as loans or savings). But it seems to be a reality.
* First step was laying off people without jobs which could be done remotely.
* Second step is laying off people who could still be productive from home, but where there's less demand.
Unless we act with boldness and resoluteness, this will just continue to feed in on itself as the nation collapses.