No return to the office? More job ads with home office option again

According to an analysis by the job platform Indeed, the number of job advertisements with the option to work from home rose again in the first quarter of 2025. According to the analysis, 15.2% of all job advertisements in Germany offered the option to work from home permanently or partially. At the beginning of the year, this figure was still at 14.7 percent. The previous high was reached in February 2023 with 16.5 percent.

After a noticeable decline in corresponding job offers last year, this trend has reversed again in recent months, explained labor market expert Virginia Sondergeld. “The recent peak in the search for jobs with remote work options also underlines the unbroken interest of employees in flexible working,” she explained. The home office has become an integral part of the modern working world in many companies – Companies that rely on a strict obligation to work from the office risk frustrating their employees and reducing their talent pool for new appointments.

According to the analysis, jobs for IT specialists are far ahead when it comes to working from home: the home office option is particularly pronounced in the areas of data analytics & information management (48%), software development (47%) and IT support & IT infrastructure (42%). Offers for traditional office jobs, for example in the areas of banking and finance (47%) and accounting (45%), also showed a high proportion of regular working from home.

More job security in on-site professions?

On the other hand, there are professional fields in which working from home is practically impossible, such as retail, cleaning services or care jobs. However, in the current economic downturn in Germany, these jobs have the advantage of greater security compared to office jobs that can easily be moved to a home office, explained economist Sondergeld. In classic office jobs, particularly in the tech sector, there has been a noticeable decline in demand for staff, unlike in less cyclical face-to-face jobs. “For example, the number of job advertisements for software development fell by around 30 percent year-on-year,” said Sondergeld.

In an international comparison, the Indeed analysis shows that Germany is one of the leading countries for hybrid working. With a 15.2 percent share of job advertisements, Germany is well ahead of countries such as the USA (7.9 percent), the Netherlands (9.6 percent), Italy (10.5 percent), France (12.3 percent) and Canada (14.1 percent). Only the UK scored better with 15.9%. According to figures from the ifo Institute, the home office has established itself in the German working world with a rate of around 25%.

(axk)