More home office than before the pandemic

How far spread is home office in Germany? Researchers investigated this based on study data from “Living in Germany”. Before the covid-19 pandemic, the option of working from home was used much less in Germany than abroad. Home office is now firmly established, albeit not in all sectors and across all socioeconomic factors.

Although working from home is no longer mandatory, almost 23% of employees still work from home once or several times a week. Particularly in the financial sector, in freelance, scientific and technical services, in real estate, in public administration, and in the information and communication sector, there has been a strong increase in working from home. In smaller companies with up to 100 employees, the increase in home office use compared to before the pandemic has been weaker than in larger companies (10 vs. 30 percent).

The higher the qualification and income, the more people work from home. Couples and single people use the option of working from home very frequently, people with children most often. It is striking that people working from home typically report both more weekly working hours and greater satisfaction – in terms of their work, their income, and also their general life situation.

Further information

Jan Goebel, Sarah Satilmis und Linus Seikat: Homeoffice auch nach Ende der Pandemiemaßnahmen weit verbreitet. DIW Weekly Report 47/2024 (in German).

Rheinische Post: Weniger Beschäftigte arbeiten nach Corona ausschließlich im Homeoffice (in German).

All results in the overview

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