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4 Stocks to Gain From the Fast-Changing American Workforce

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America’s growing digital economy is witnessing the emergence of a new pool of skilled workers, who are reshaping the traditional workplace. According to an Upwork report, 73% of all departments in the United States will accommodate remote workers by 2028.

American companies are gradually coming up with remote job opportunities that prioritize skills over employees’ presence at workplace. You could consider investing in a few stocks that are banking on this trend.

Emerging Technologies are Transforming Business

As more millennials and Gen Zs climb the corporate ladder, their expectations of workplace flexibility stand to reshape the nature of work. Young workers are likely to fill in 58% of the American workforce by 2028, which is 38% higher from present times.

The flexibility that young workers seek is offered by the penetration of new technologies at workplace. Technologies such as blockchain, machine learning and artificial intelligence are changing the way businesses function. This has made jobs both flexible and customizable to fit company requirements, thus making remote working easier.

In addition, as Internet users grow in number worldwide, demand for flexible remote jobs should also rise. The total number of global Internet users increased to 4,157 million in 2017 from 3,079 million in 2014, a Coherent market Insights report cited. Advancement in telecommunications technology is also a major factor boosting demand for remote working options.

More Industries Opting for Virtual Workers

According to a FlexJobs report, industries such as medical and healthcare, computer and information technology, business services, finance and accounting, and education and training are expanding to fit in more remote roles.

According to a Dice salary survey, at least 60% of tech workers said they would prefer remote work half the time or more. At present, the technology industry accommodates the highest number of remote jobs, with some tech companies even functioning with a complete virtual workforce.

Data by Gallup cited that in the 2012-2016 period, the number of employees working remotely increased 8 percentage points to reach 47%. They were mostly employed in finance, real estate and insurance.

In addition, the requirement of workers with specific skill sets is also pushing employers to opt for freelance and remote working models.

Remote Working Reduces Overhead Costs for Companies

Businesses flexible to remote work arrangements are more likely to save on office-related expenses such as utilities and office supplies along with lesser occupancy charges. Per a Stanford Business report, businesses can save up to $2000 annually on someone working remotely.

Higher productivity is an added advantage for companies, since remote workers can perform more efficiently. These factors definitely have a positive impact on a company’s bottom line.

4 Stocks to Benefit From This Trend

We have chosen a couple of companies that are rapidly adapting to the changing workplace scenario by opening up remote job opportunities for their employees.

Anthem, Inc. is a health benefits company in the United States. The company offers a wide range of network-based health benefit plans to Medicare, Medicaid markets, and individuals and groups. The company also offers a spectrum of managed care services, insurance products and services that cover areas such as dental, disability, vision and life.

Anthem carries a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) and its expected earnings growth rate for the current year is 20.4% compared with the Zacks Medical - HMOs industry’s projected rise of 16.9%. The company has outperformed the broader industry in the past one-year period (+28.8% vs +8.1%).

Its Zacks Consensus Estimate for current-year earnings has risen 8.8% in the last 60 days. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

salesforce.com, inc. (CRM - Free Report) provides enterprise cloud computing solutions. It offers Sales Cloud for the purpose of data storage, monitoring leads and forecast opportunities among other services. The company also offers Service Cloud, Marketing Cloud, Commerce Cloud etc, all of which come with their own set of facilities.

salesforce.com carries a Zacks Rank #1 and its expected earnings growth rate for the next year is 47.5% compared with the Zacks Computer - Software industry’s projected rise of 18.7%. The company has outperformed the broader industry in the past one-year period (+25.3% vs +15.9%).

Its Zacks Consensus Estimate for current-year earnings has risen 0.8% in the last 60 days.

Cisco Systems, Inc. (CSCO - Free Report) is the designer, manufacturer and marketer of Internet Protocol based networking and other communications and information technology-related products.

Cisco Systems carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) and its expected earnings growth rate for the current year is 16.9% compared with the Zacks Computer – Networking industry’s projected decline of 0.4%. The company has outperformed the broader industry in the past one-year period (+16.1% vs +13.9%).

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Cisco’s current-year earnings has risen 1.5% in the last 60 days.

Automatic Data Processing, Inc. (ADP - Free Report) offers business process outsourcing services. The company has two segments — professional employer organization services and employer services. The company offers a wide range of services that companies can avail to make tasks such as recruitment, payroll management, managing and retaining their workforce easier.

Automatic Data Processing carries a Zacks Rank #2 and its expected earnings growth rate for the current year is 23.5% compared with the Zacks Outsourcing industry’s projected rise of 9.6%. The company has outperformed the broader industry in the past one-year period (+32.6% vs +16.1%).

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for the company’s current-year earnings has risen 1.9% in the past 60 days.

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