Working from home: no trend towards returning to the office

The number of employees working from home remains stable: according to a recent economic survey by the ifo economic institute, 24.4% of all employees in Germany worked from home at least part of the time in August. Companies in the IT sector stand out in particular, where the proportion is between 72 and 75 percent.

At 35.1%, the average rate for service companies is generally higher than in other sectors of the economy. In the manufacturing industry, only 15.7% can work from home, while the retail sector (4.6%) and the construction industry (4.4%) are the least likely to work from home.

"Working from home is and remains established"

"The home office rate has remained fairly stable at a quarter of all employees since 2022," comments ifo researcher Jean-Victor Alipour on the results. "There is no discernible trend towards a return to the office. Prominent examples of individual companies bringing their employees back to the office remain isolated cases." Among others, US tech companies such as Amazon and Dell have introduced strict rules with five days in the office per week. In Germany, Otto , for example, had previously trimmed generous regulations to 50 percent office attendance and Axel Springer Verlag even reportedly switched to 80 percent attendance.

According to Alipour, this may be headline-grabbing, but it is not forward-looking. Young and fast-growing companies in particular would opt for working from home. "Working from home is already firmly integrated into the culture of tomorrow's employers," says Alipour. "Working from home is and will remain established."

(axk)