Remote, Hybrid, On-site Work

The pandemic radically altered work life. Some staff continued to arrive on location, heavily masked and protected from close in-person interaction. Others shifted their workplaces to their homes.

Early on, there were reports that one-third of households experienced at least one member shifting their place of work. In short, this was a major change in work-life patterns.

The nature of the pandemic is very different now. But some of the job-shifting that occurred during the pandemic created quasi-permanent remote jobs. This is true both of the private sector and the government sector.

But changes were contemplated early. I remember a chat with an official of a nationwide bank who in August of 2020 ordered all staff to return to the office, only to change his mind after his staff objected. A recent report notes that on average 39% of employers have changed their policy two or more times since fall 2020. There seems to have been much shifting by employers over the past years.

The passage of years now allows us to ask the question of whether the move to “work at home” has stabilized.

In the last couple of years, the Bureau of Labor Statistics has been tracking the percentage of teleworked or worked at home hours among all hours worked . In 2024, this has stabilized to be about 16%. Be careful to note this is the percentage of hours worked by persons aged 16 years or older.

Gallup has a different measure – the percentage of persons working hybrid, remotely, or exclusively on site. Hybrid workers form 53% of all workers; remote workers, 27%; on site, 21%. The percentage of persons fully remote has been stable at around the 27% remote for the last years.

Another set of surveys uses less rigorous frame and sampling methods relying on data aggregators, but has consistent and interesting measures since 2021. It provides yet another statistic – the percentage of paid full days working at home. In the most recent 2024 release, 28% of paid workdays are worked at home among those employed. This statistic shows dramatic declines since 2021 but as with others, a flattening out in recent months. But the overall percentage belies variation – 33% of the workers are fully on site; 26% are fully remote.

Employers’ policies seem to be stabilizing. The surveys report that on average the number of days at-home permitted about 1.5 days. That number has been stable for about 2 years. (Interestingly, in the same survey, workers report that on average they would desire between 2.5 and 3 days working at home).

The survey also breaks out sectors of the economy. On average those working in education (I suspect not just higher education) spend about 1 day a week at home. In contrast those in finance and insurance spend between 2 and 3 days working at home. There are age correlates – proportionately more younger workers at home than older workers. There are also reports that at-home workers are doing more work outside of normal business hours than are fully on-site workers, who seem more likely to stop working once they leave the work site.

So what do we make of all this? Hybrid work seems to be an average state for many workers. The trends in at-home working seem to be stabilizing in the past year. So, while the dramatic drop in on-site working that occurred in 2020 was not maintained, there is much evidence that we have not returned to the dominance of on-site work prevalent for the pre-pandemic society.