Work from home has remained substantially more common than before the pandemic, although estimates differ by definition. In the United States, 13.8% of workers usually worked from home in 2023, while the Bureau of Labor Statistics found that 32.5% worked at home on an average day in 2024. These measures describe different populations and reference periods, so they should not be treated as interchangeable.
Contents
- Participation before, during, and after the pandemic
- How much work happens at home in the United States
- Occupations, worker classes, and education
- Income and worker groups in Great Britain
- Regional homeworking and commuting in the UK
- Hybrid work and the post-pandemic pattern
Participation before, during, and after the pandemic
The U.S. Census Bureau’s measure describes workers who usually worked from home. On that basis, 5.7% of U.S. workers—roughly 9 million people—usually worked from home in 2019. The share rose to 17.9%, or about 27.6 million people, in 2021. It then stood at 15.2% in 2022 and 13.8% in 2023, still more than twice the 2019 share. These are observed Census figures; the population and definition follow the cited source, and ACS estimates have sampling error. U.S. Census Bureau
The UK showed a similar shift in its worker measure. The Office for National Statistics reported that 14.5% of workers, or 4.7 million people, worked from home in October–December 2019. In January–March 2022, the figure was 30.6%, or 9.9 million people. ONS described the increase between late 2019 and early 2022 as 108.8%, or 5.2 million people. Office for National Statistics
Paid workdays tell a different story from the share of workers. A summary of prior U.S. research in the Global Survey of Working Arrangements paper estimated that only about 5%–7% of paid workdays took place at home in 2019. During the spring 2020 lockdowns, nearly 60% of paid workdays were estimated to take place at home. The paid-workday measure differs from the worker-share measures above, and the lockdown figure is an estimate rather than a count of people. Global Survey of Working Arrangements 2025
How much work happens at home in the United States
The 2024 American Time Use Survey measures whether people worked at home on an average day. This is broader than a “usually worked from home” commuting classification: a person can be counted if they worked at home on that day, even if they also work elsewhere. BLS counted 36.447 million employed people age 15 and older working at home on an average day, equal to 32.5% of employed people. Bureau of Labor Statistics
Full-time and part-time workers differed in both participation and time worked at home:
| U.S. worker group, 2024 annual average | Worked at home on an average day | Average hours worked at home |
|---|---|---|
| All employed people age 15+ | 32.5% | — |
| Full-time workers | 33.4% | 5.45 |
| Part-time workers | 27.9% | 3.22 |
The full-time total was 31.332 million people, while the part-time total was 5.114 million. The hours figures describe average hours among the respective groups in the BLS table, not a forecast or a measure of total weekly remote work.
Sex and jobholding status also show differences in the 2024 annual-average data. Among employed U.S. men, 29.1% worked at home on an average day and averaged 5.04 hours. Among employed U.S. women, 36.4% worked at home and averaged 5.23 hours. Single jobholders recorded 31.9% and 5.21 hours, compared with 37.4% and 4.66 hours among multiple jobholders. These BLS results describe an average day, not the share of workers whose jobs can be performed remotely.
Occupations, worker classes, and education
Work from home is strongly associated with the type of work being performed. In 2024, 30.1% of U.S. wage-and-salary workers worked at home on an average day, averaging 5.30 hours. The corresponding figure was 48.1% for management, business, and financial-operations workers, with 5.79 average hours, and 46.5% for professional and related workers, with 4.98 hours. Bureau of Labor Statistics
Other occupational groups had lower shares:
- Sales and related workers: 32.0%, averaging 5.23 hours.
- Office and administrative-support workers: 26.7%, averaging 5.72 hours.
- Construction and extraction workers: 16.5%, averaging 2.17 hours.
- Service workers: 10.5%, averaging 4.41 hours.
- Production workers: 8.3%; BLS suppressed the hours estimate under its publication standards.
- Transportation and material-moving workers: 5.8%, averaging 3.09 hours.
Education is another major dividing line in the BLS data. Among U.S. workers age 25 and older with a high school diploma and no college, 17.8% worked at home on an average day in 2024, averaging 4.74 hours. Among workers age 25 and older with a bachelor’s degree or higher, 50.0% worked at home, averaging 5.42 hours. These are descriptive differences in the annual-average survey and do not establish a causal effect of education on remote work.
Income and worker groups in Great Britain
An ONS pooled survey of adults in Great Britain who had worked in the last seven days measured home-only, hybrid, and travel-to-work arrangements from September 2022 through January 2023. Overall, 44% reported either home-only or hybrid working, while 56% only travelled to work. Within the 44%, 28% reported hybrid working and 16% working from home only. Among people who travelled to work, 46% said they could not work at home and 10% said they could work at home. Office for National Statistics
The survey found large differences by income and qualifications. About 80% of Great Britain workers earning £50,000 or more reported home-only or hybrid working, compared with 14% of those earning up to £10,000. Among degree holders, 23% reported home-only working and 44% hybrid working. Among workers with no qualifications, the corresponding figures were 5% and 9%.
Occupation showed a similar pattern. Great Britain professionals reported 27% home-only working and 44% hybrid working. Elementary occupations reported 1% home-only working and 3% hybrid working. Sector also mattered: hybrid working was reported by 35% of public-sector workers and 26% of private-sector workers. These are survey estimates for the stated period and populations, not universal rates for every worker or occupation.
Regional homeworking and commuting in the UK
The ONS regional analysis reported different levels and rates of change across the UK. Scotland recorded the largest increase between late 2019 and early 2022: 203.5%, or 544,000 people. Northern Ireland recorded the smallest increase, 56.4%, or 49,000 people. The ONS notes that its regional figures are not official employment totals. Office for National Statistics
In January–March 2022, London had the highest listed homeworking share, at 37.0%, or 1.9 million people. The South East recorded 36.9%, or 1.6 million people, and the East of England recorded 31.1%, or 903,000 people. Northern Ireland had the lowest listed regional share, at 16.4%, or 137,000 people.
Commuting patterns changed alongside homeworking. Commuting into a UK region different from the worker’s region of residence fell 26.1%, or 629,000 people, between late 2019 and early 2022. London cross-region commuting into the region fell 36.8%, or 367,000 people, over the same period. These figures describe changes in the cited regional measures; they do not quantify productivity, employer savings, or the causes of the change.
Hybrid work and the post-pandemic pattern
The later pattern is often hybrid rather than fully home-based. In Great Britain, 29% of workers age 30 and older followed hybrid work in April–June 2024, compared with 19% of workers age 16–29. Working parents recorded 35%, compared with 24% of non-parents. Among working parents, 41% of men and 30% of women followed hybrid work. Office for National Statistics
Role and qualifications were also associated with hybrid work. In Great Britain, 45% of managers, directors, and senior officials followed hybrid work in April–June 2024, compared with 27% of all workers. Degree holders were 10 times as likely to hybrid work as those with no qualifications: 42% versus 4%. This is the ONS-reported comparison; the ratio is not independently calculated here.
At business level, a December 2023 UK survey found that 49% of information-and-communication businesses reported hybrid working. The same survey found 42% among businesses in professional, scientific, and technical activities. These are BICS business-level measures, so they should not be read as the percentage of all employees working hybrid.
Internationally, the Global Survey of Working Arrangements reported that average full paid work-from-home days across 23 countries fell from 1.55 per week in 2022 to 1.29 in 2023 and 1.23 in late 2024 or early 2025. Its fourth wave surveyed 16,422 full-time, college-educated workers in 40 countries from November 2024 through February 2025. College-educated employees in the United States, Canada, the UK, and Ireland typically reported 1.5–1.9 work-from-home days per week. The panel uses quota sampling, covers a selected worker population, and does not establish causality. Global Survey of Working Arrangements 2025
The measures in this overview answer different questions: usual homeworking, work at home on an average day, home-only or hybrid status in a reference week, regional counts, business-level adoption, and full paid days at home. Keeping those definitions, populations, geographies, and periods separate is essential when comparing work from home statistics.