'Dress for the job you want' is dead. Now, it's 'dress for the job you want to keep.'

"Dress for the job you want to... keep? In a job market where power has shifted toward employers, at least one thing remains within an employee's control: how they choose to show up to work. With layoffs and slow hiring shaping the labor market and RTO mandates pulling employees back into offices, experts say workers are dressing more carefully to project competence."

"Business casual had an era - a long one. Over the past 30 years, suits and ties have given way to blazers and sweaters in many white-collar industries. By the early 2000s, the casual look was ubiquitous in tech. Think Mark Zuckerberg's signature gray T-shirt, hoodie, and jeans. When the pandemic hit, casual dressing went from trend to default. There was no need to dress up for your living room."

"But times are different now. Workers are being called back into the office, and the franzied "Great Resignation" period post-pandemic, when employers were scrambling to retain staff and thrust into bidding wars to scoop up talent, is well behind us. The balance of power has shifted from employee to employer. US businesses are hiring at one of the slowest rates since 2013, and the early impact of AI is beginning to show up."

Workwear is recalibrating toward styles that balance comfort with a more polished look as the tightening job market and return-to-office mandates reduce pandemic casualness. Employees increasingly select smarter outfits to project competence and create a boundary between work and home. Business casual evolved over decades from suits to blazers and sweaters, and tech normalized very casual attire in the 2000s. The pandemic accelerated casual dressing into a default, but recent shifts have reversed that trend. Layoffs, slowing hiring, and early AI impacts have shifted bargaining power toward employers, prompting workers to view dress as career risk management.

Read at Business Insider