Before the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, 17 percent of U.S. employees worked from home 5 days or more per week, a share that increased to 44 percent during the pandemic. The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the remote working trend, as quarantines and lockdowns made commuting and working in an office close to impossible for millions around the world. Remote work, also called telework or working from home (WFH), provided a solution, with employees performing their roles away from the office supported by specialized technology, eliminating the commute to an office to remain connected with colleagues and clients. What enables working from home?

To enable remote work, employees rely on a remote work arrangements that enable hybrid work and make it safe during the COVID-19 pandemic. Technology supporting remote work including laptops saw a surge in demand, video conferencing companies such as Zoom jumped in value, and employers had to consider new communication techniques and resources. Is remote work the future of work?

The response to COVID-19 has demonstrated that hybrid work models are not necessarily an impediment to productivity. For this reason, there is a general consensus that different remote work models will persist post-COVID-19. Many employers see benefits to flexible working arrangements, including positive results on employee wellness surveys, and potentially reducing office space. Many employees also plan on working from home more often, with 25 percent of respondents to a recent survey expecting remote work as a benefit of employment. As a result, it is of utmost importance to acknowledge any issues that may arise in this context to empower a hybrid workforce and ensure a smooth transition to more flexible work models.

The trend of working remotely has been slowly increasing globally since 2015, with a *** to ***** percent annual increase rate. However, the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 upended the world economy and global markets. Employment trends were no exception to this, with the share of employees working remotely increasing to some ** percent in 2022 from just ** percent two years prior. The industry with the highest share of remote workers globally in 2023 was by far the technology sector, with over ** percent of tech employees worldwide working fully or mostly remotely. How are employers dealing with remote work? Many employers around the world have already adopted some remote work policies. According to IT industry leaders, reasons for remote work adoption ranged from a desire to broaden a company’s talent pool, increase productivity, and reduce costs from office equipment or real estate investments. Nonetheless, employers worldwide grappled with various concerns related to hybrid work. Among tech leaders, leading concerns included enabling effective collaboration and preserving organizational culture in hybrid work environments. Consequently, it’s unsurprising that maintaining organizational culture, fostering collaboration, and real estate investments emerged as key drivers for return-to-office mandates globally. However, these efforts were not without challenges. Notably, ** percent of employers faced employee resistance to returning to the office, prompting a review of their remote work policies.

In a June 2020 survey, participants that worked from home during the coronavirus pandemic were asked if they believed they were more productive at home than in the office. Among the respondents, **** percent answered that yes, they thought that working from home was allowing them to accomplish more than they would in an office environment.

In June 2025, approximately 12 percent of workers in Great Britain worked from home exclusively, with a further 26 percent working from home and travelling to work, while 43 percent only travelled to work. During this time period, the share of people only travelling to work was highest in March 2022, at 60 percent of respondents, with the peak for only working from home occurring in June 2020. In general, hybrid working has become steadily more popular than fully remote working, with the highest share of people hybrid working in November 2023, when 31 percent of people advising they were hybrid working. What type of workers are most likely to work from home? In 2020, over half of people working in the agriculture sector mainly worked from home, which was the highest share among UK industry sectors at that time. While this industry was one of the most accessible for mainly working at home, just six percent of workers in the accommodation and food services sector mainly did this, the lowest of any sector. In the same year, men were slightly more likely to mainly work from home than women, while the most common age group for mainly working from home was those aged 75 and over, at 45.4 percent. Over a long-term period, the share of people primarily home working has grown from 11.1 percent in 1998, to approximately 17.4 percent in 2020. Growth of Flexible working in the UK According to a survey conducted in 2023, working from home either on a regular, or ad hoc basis was the most common type of flexible working arrangement offered by organizations in the UK, at 62 percent of respondents. Other popular flexible working arrangements include the ability to work flexible hours, work part-time, or take career breaks. Since 2013, for example, the number of employees in the UK that can work flextime has increased from 3.2 million, to around 4.2 million by 2024. When asked why flexible work was important to them, most UK workers said that it supported a better work-life balance, with 41 percent expressing that it made their commute to work more manageable.

In 2022, around ** percent of respondents stated that their biggest struggle when working remotely was staying at home too often because there they don't have reason to leave. Moreover many people who work from home do not necessarily have a designated workspace, they experience a conflation between their living area and workplace. Most notably, around ** percent of respondents reported loneliness as their biggest struggle with working remotely. As a result, remotely working employees emphasize the importance of finding strategies to balance their private lives with their professional routines. On the other hand, employees also state having less difficulties with collaboration and communication in 2021. This is likely due to the quick cultivation of skills during the 2020 pandemic that allow them to effectively communicate and collaborate with others when working from different locations. Challenges inherent in new work set-ups As employees work from different locations, companies are confronted with the urgency to ease some of the challenges inherent in novel hybrid work solutions. Strategies developed to support remote work include training for employees or expanding information technology infrastructure to ensure that employees can collaborate efficiently from different locations. The future of work Certainly, it is important to take the challenges experienced by employees seriously as the current telework trend is likely to continue and become a common way of working in the future. Addressing challenges head-on in the present will ensure better working conditions in the future.

Close to 80 percent of employees in the United States, Germany, United Kingdom, and China are satisfied with working from home during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. 34 percent of employees in the United Kingdom love working from home and easily see themselves doing that forever. As with employee preferences, working policies by businesses, public bodies and employers could also see significant changes regarding where and how people work after the pandemic.

For further information about the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, please visit our dedicated Facts and Figures page.

Hybrid models of working are on the rise in the United States according to survey data covering worker habits between 2019 and 2024. In the second quarter of 2024, ** percent of U.S. workers reported working in a hybrid manner. The emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic saw a record number of people working remotely to help curb the spread of the virus. Since then, many workers have found a new shape to their home and working lives, finding that a hybrid model of working is more flexible than always being required to work on-site.

In 2022, around 24 percent of respondents who were working remotely worldwide stated that they were working less compared to the previous year, while around 44 percent of respondents reported that they were working more.

The percentage of people who mainly work from home in the United Kingdom reached **** percent in 2020, compared with **** percent in the previous year. Since 1998 the number of people that regularly work from home in the UK has increased by **** million after the number of remote workers reached *** million in 2020.

This graph shows the results of survey about the benefits of working from home according to French people in 2022. That year, ** percent of respondents declared that they thought one of the benefits of home office was to make financial savings.

In a ********* survey, **** percent of participants that worked from home during the coronavirus pandemic said that their telecommute was leaving them more stressed. However, ** percent said that the work from home had no impact on their stress levels.

In January 2021, 24 percent of employees in Germany worked from home. The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic is ongoing. Since March 2020, many employees in the country have faced fluctuating waves of having to work from home, depending on current regulations introduced by the government and virus waves. The survey on which this graph is based also included those looking for employment.

In 2022, the main benefit to remote work worldwide was the ability to have a flexible schedule with 22 percent of respondents naming it as the biggest benefit to working remotely. The flexibility to choose where respondents live ranked second.

In 2023, the majority of respondents reported that executive leadership of the company trusted employees working remotely to be productive while at home, with ** percent reported that all employees were trustworthy. Interestingly, around ** percent of respondents reported that executive leadership had trust in only select employees.

When asked whether remote work has been a success, 83 of employers agree, while only 73 percent of employees agree. This illustrates that the majority of respondents agree that remote work has been a success. Remote work refers to the practice of employees working from many different locations, relying on modern technologies to connect them to their coworkers.

This graph shows the percentage of Spanish people who ate at home or at work during the week in 2013 and in 2015. The number of people who ate at home during business days decreased to **% in 2015.

This graph presents the frequency at which French people go to bars near their home or their workplace in 2018. It appears that nearly ** percent of the surveyed said they went to bars close to their home or to their workplace between twice and ** times a year.

Graph and download economic data for Personal Care and Home Health Job Postings on Indeed in Australia (IHLIDXAUTPPECAHOHE) from 2020-02-01 to 2025-07-11 about hygiene, jobs, Australia, health, housing, and USA.

Graph and download economic data for Personal Care and Home Health Job Postings on Indeed in Canada (IHLIDXCATPPECAHOHE) from 2020-02-01 to 2025-07-18 about hygiene, jobs, health, Canada, housing, and USA.

Graph and download economic data for Personal Care and Home Health Job Postings on Indeed in the United States (IHLIDXUSTPPECAHOHE) from 2020-02-01 to 2025-07-25 about hygiene, jobs, health, housing, and USA.