According to the latest figures, working from home has become firmly established in many companies, even after the end of the coronavirus pandemic. In 80% of companies in the information industry, employees work from home at least once a week. In the manufacturing sector, which is more location-based, the figure is 45%. This is the result of a survey of 1,500 companies conducted by the ZEW economic research institute.
In comparison: before the pandemic, the proportion of companies in the information economy with home office arrangements was 48%. The information economy includes the information and communication technology sector, media service providers and knowledge-intensive service providers. In the manufacturing industry, the figure was 24% at the time.
The survey also revealed that companies are also expecting an increase in home office use over the next two years rather than a decrease. This is a continuation of a trend.
According to expectations, both the proportion of companies planning to work from home in 2025 and the proportion of employees who work from home at least once a week are set to increase. For example, according to the survey, 58% of companies in the information industry and 19% in the manufacturing industry plan to have more than 20% of employees working from home some of the time in two years' time.
Companies that do not currently allow employees to work from home do not plan to offer their employees this option in the next two years either
A large-scale survey conducted by the ifo Institute among almost 9,000 companies from all sectors confirms the trend that working from home has become firmly established in companies despite debates about returning to the office. According to the survey, 24.1% of employees in Germany worked from home at least some of the time in February 2024. The proportion has therefore remained almost the same for two years.
At 32.1%, employees in large companies work from home significantly more often than in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), where the proportion is 20.5%. It was to be expected that employees in the service sector work from home most frequently (34.1 percent). In sectors where working from home is not always or only rarely possible, the percentages are significantly lower. For example, only 16% work from home in industry, 12.2% in retail and, as expected, only 5.4% in the construction sector.
It is clear that face-to-face work has some advantages over working from home, for example when it comes to the transfer of knowledge or when creativity in a group or social aspects are required. Greater coordination of office hours to strengthen personal exchange can certainly make sense here. Despite the debates about a possible return to the office at individual companies, however, the survey results show that there are no signs of the home office being abolished.
According to a study by the Ifo Institute, German employees are able to work from home a lot compared to other European countries. According to the study, Germany ranks second out of 17 European countries with an average of just over one day of working from home per week. Only in the United Kingdom (1.5 days per week) can employees work more from home on average. In a global comparison of the 34 countries surveyed, Canada (1.7 days), the USA (1.4 days) and Australia (1.3 days) are ahead of Germany. The average of the 34 countries is just under 0.9 days per week.
