In a representative study, the Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research examined the prevalence of working from home in Germany in June 2023. Around 1,500 companies in Germany were surveyed for this purpose.
The offer and use of home office options have become established. In 80% of companies in the information economy, employees work from home at least once a week; in the manufacturing sector, the figure is 45%.
Compared to the time before the coronavirus pandemic, the proportion of employees working from home has increased. In around one in two companies in the information economy, more than 20% of employees currently work from home at least once a week, which is 8 percentage points more than before the start of the coronavirus pandemic. The same trend can be observed for manufacturing companies, albeit with a weaker increase. Before coronavirus, the proportion of companies in which more than a fifth of employees worked from home was just 2%, whereas it currently stands at 13%.
For the years up to 2025, companies expect a further increase in home office offers and also increased utilisation by employees. For example, 58% of companies in the information economy and 19% of companies in the manufacturing industry assume that more than a fifth of their own employees will be working (partly) from home in two years’ time.
The decisive factor for the development within the companies is whether they already offer the option of working from home. 90% of companies that do not offer home office state that they have no plans to introduce home office in the next two years.
