Business owners and employers might be tempted to relax their dress codes to help recruit new workers — but experts warn they should not make that decision lightly.
An analysis of 27,000 job postings across the United States by job firm Adzuna over the last few years found the number of job postings mentioning a casual dress code has risen from 57.5% of postings in 2019 to 69.5% of postings in 2022. Meanwhile, the percentage of job postings referencing business casual dress codes has fallen from 41% in 2019 to 29.4% in 2022.
“In recent years, there’s been a clear shift in how American employees are expected to dress for work,” said James Neave, head of data science at Adzuna. “As companies continue to adopt more flexible work environments, we anticipate more employers will ditch the suits and ties in favor of casual work attire.”
He stressed that worker expectations have permanently changed since the pandemic, and jobseekers now gravitate toward companies that offer more relaxed policies allowing workers to be themselves, including the flexibility of what to wear to work.
