The overall proportion of employees working from home has almost doubled compared to pre-Corona levels. The increase was particularly strong among employees who only work from home.
The number of dependent employees who work exclusively from home has almost quadrupled due to the Corona crisis. While this only applied to 674,000 employees before Corona in 2019, in 2022 it was already around 2.285 million or around six percent of all dependent employees. This emerges from a response from the Federal Ministry of Labor published on Thursday to a request from Left-wing MP Susanne Ferschl. The ministry relies on data from the Federal Statistical Office. The “Rheinische Post” had previously reported.
According to the Ifo Institute, the most frequently used home office days in the economy are Friday and Monday. “Friday is the most common home office day in 55 percent of companies, ahead of Monday at 35 percent,” according to a survey of more than 9,000 companies. “In contrast, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday are mostly attendance days, even for employees who sometimes work at home,” said Ifo researcher Simon Krause. This pattern can be seen in all sectors of the economy and in both small and large companies. Across all sectors, around 64 percent of companies use home offices.
More flexibility
Determining face-to-face and home office days best combines the interests of companies and employees, said Krause. Creative teamwork, meetings and mentoring would then take place on on-site days, and the home office would be used for concentrated, undisturbed work. Employees would have more flexibility and save on commuting, companies would save on office costs and benefit from higher employee retention while maintaining productivity. The losers are the retailers in city centers with high office density, whose sales are shrinking due to home offices.
The Federal Statistical Office had previously reported that 24.2 percent of all employed people in Germany worked from home at least occasionally in 2022. Of these, 14.7 percent used their home office every day or at least half of their working hours. Another 9.5 percent worked from home on less than half of their working days. According to statisticians, the proportion of employees working from home almost doubled compared to the pre-Corona level. In 2019, 12.8 percent of employees worked from home, and in the first Corona year of 2020, 21.0 percent.
According to figures from the Federal Statistical Office, solo self-employed people (53.9 percent) work from home most often. Of these, 76 percent even spent every day or at least half of their working hours in the home office. According to the statistics office, men worked from home slightly more often than women (25.0 percent) (23.3). The proportion of employees who work from home is also highest in professions where work is predominantly done at a desk: 50.6 percent of scientists and 42.2 percent of managers worked from home. The proportion is lowest for the occupational group of plant and machine operators (1.8) and unskilled workers (2.2).
Source: Stern
