Almost every fourth employee in Germany works at least partially from home. In February, the share of the house was 24.5 percent, as the Munich IFO Institute announced on Monday in his economic survey.
For comparison: six months earlier – in August 2024 – the share was still 23.4 percent. “We see no evidence in the data that the Home Office has the withdrawal,” said ifo researcher Jean-Victor Alipour.
“Home Office has settled firmly to bring individual initiatives from companies to bring their employees back to the office, are not a statistically readable trend.” Employees work the most from home. Here the share is 34.3 percent. In the processing industry it is 16.9 percent, 12.5 percent in the retail trade. The lower light is the construction sector with 4.6 percent. “The quota of the Home Office has remained almost unchanged since April 2022,” said Alipour.
According to the IFO Institute, it also appears that hybrid home office models generally do not influence productivity. When the presence days are more coordinated, this reinforces personal exchange and productivity. This reduces the flexibility for employees, but not necessarily the scope of the home office.
Home Office in the US on retreat
Studies for the United States showed that companies are more likely to limit the home office under economic pressure. “The focus is not necessarily on a higher performance of employees,” said IFO researcher Alipour. “Such measures can also promote voluntary dismissal.”
Also refuse in Austria
Home Office is just as firmly anchored in Austria, but according to the studies it was recently used less than in the first Pandemic years. While the number of employees who regularly worked from home, by 2021 according to data from the Ministry of Finance, was still a good 848,000 employees, it was only a good 743,000 in 2023. The same can be found in a Deloitte study from 2024 that also shows a slight decrease.
Source: Krone
I’m Ben Stock, a journalist and author at Today Times Live. I specialize in economic news and have been working in the news industry for over five years. My experience spans from local journalism to international business reporting. In my career I’ve had the opportunity to interview some of the world’s leading economists and financial experts, giving me an insight into global trends that is unique among journalists.
