As major American corporations began welcoming workers in the spring, they were surprised by what they saw: fewer employees than expected who wanted to go back to the offices. Such was the case at Ford, which told CNBC in April that the initial numbers were “less than we expected” Recent Comments from the CEO of And ibm Show that many employees of the largest firms prefer to work from somewhere other than the office, at least most of the time.
Tech company CEO Arvind Krishna told CNBC’s Sarah Eisen at the Aspen Ideas Festival on Monday that only 20% of IBM’s US employees are in the office for three days a week or more. Krishna said he does not see any scenario where the balance of employees in the office goes up to 60%.
IBM had more than 280,000 employees globally at the end of last year.
When it comes to wages, Krishna expects employers to reap some of the benefits, although only a low level of wage inflation rather than the reverse. “We will get wage adjustments,” said Krishna at the Aspen Ideas Festival. “I expect to see a reduction in growth, a step down.”
Most of the layoffs in tech, he said, are at unprofitable firms, and other recent reporting from CNBC and survey data from the tech industry shows that worker in the driver’s seat When it comes to job offers and Many companies are aggressively planning hiring,
Krishna doesn’t expect overall inflation to ease sharply, staying well above the Fed’s target of 2% next year. IBM is preparing for a “period of more sustained inflation,” Krishna said, and a return to the Fed’s target of 2% is not realistic for the next three to four years.
This does not mean that he sees a recession coming, as he has described the current period of high inflation coupled with labor market shortages and made past economic examples less important as a forecasting tool.
Meanwhile, technology spending in the business-to-business segment remains strong, Krishna said, with more spending on technology across sectors including retail, banking and finance, and pharmaceuticals and biotech.
“We are not seeing a slowdown in the B2B sector,” he said.
Watch the video above for highlights from the full interview with the CEO of IBM at the Aspen Ideas Festival, during which Krishna also provides the tech giant’s thoughts on the Supreme Court’s abortion ruling and its approach to response to political issues.
Disclosure: NBCUniversal News Group is the media partner of the Aspen Ideas Festival.