LinkedIn makes it seem like lots of US companies are hiring in-house staff, especially this year while advertising budgets were slashed. That said, I can’t speak to how much fully-remote hiring or off-shoring is going to increase.

I’ve worked both in-house and agency side and unless you work for a small company that doesn’t really need a full-time resource, I find them to be largely the same experience at a junior level. There’s no “end” to SEO, so there should always be more work to do whether it’s for clients or your employer. That’s why I prefer working on a team, so we have an exchange of ideas and strengths/weaknesses that support each other.