47 Latest Remote Work Statistics, Facts, And Trends

When the world shifted to remote working after the COVID-19 pandemic began, Zoom quickly became the clear winner. Overwhelmingly, remote workers would recommend remote work to friends and family, according to Buffer’s 2021 State of Remote Work. This number paints a pretty clear picture that how remote work has become the new norm and is here to stay. This number is backed up by Gallup’s recent State of the Workforce study of more than 9,000 U.S. workers.

  • Learn more about the data behind this report, supplied by Quantum Workplace.
  • Remote work isn’t a new concept—some organizations offered this flexibility even before the pandemic.
  • It is clear that, despite much of the world opening up and returning to the office, the remote workspace is here to stay.
  • In theory, certain jobs can be done outside of the traditional office with ease.
  • East Asian work culture favors building relationships with coworkers and stakeholders, customers, clients, etc.

Option of remote working) will be a key factor in their sector and in recruitment. In 2019, Zapier found that Baby Boomers (52%) were more productive when working from home compared to 38% of Millienials. A study by Opinium in May 2020 found that 69% of adults remote work statistics were working from home, up from just 9% before the pandemic. However, in comparison to other European countries, the growth of remote work in Spain has been more limited over the last ten years, with a mere 7%, against a European average of 14.1%.

Of Remote Workers Say Their Work

Many WFA organizations rely on technology to help facilitate virtual watercoolers and “planned randomized interactions,” whereby someone in the company schedules groups of employees to chat online. Some use AI and virtual reality tools to pair up remote colleagues for weekly chats. This is another challenge for all-remote or majority-remote organizations. Distributed colleagues can’t tap one another on the shoulder to ask questions or get help. The companies I’ve studied solve it with transparent and easily accessible documentation. At GitLab all team members have access to a “working handbook,” which some describe as “the central repository for how we run the company.” It currently consists of 5,000 searchable pages. All employees are encouraged to add to it and taught how to create a new topic page, edit an existing one, embed video, and so forth.

It seems employees are realizing the benefits of remote work and the positive effects it has on their lives in the long run. A recent survey from OpenVPN on the State of Cybersecurity for Remote Work revealed that more than half (54%) of IT professionals believe that remote employees pose a greater security risk than in-office employees. Zoom is a video conferencing app that reported growing 326% in 2020, despite being a decade-old company. The COVID-19 pandemic prompted an abrupt shift to remote work for most companies and employees and transformed Zoom into a household name practically overnight. More and more remote workers value this new work-life balance and are even quitting instead of going back to the office.

Remote Workers Could Save Up To $7,000 Per Year

Another organization I’ve studied is BRAC, one of the world’s largest NGOs, which is headquartered in Bangladesh. Forced into remote work this year, it is deciding what work model to adopt for the long term. Adoption of remote work is growing and will likely continue to do so post-pandemic.

global remote work statistics 2020

While people from all industries have been forced to find ways to work remotely during the pandemic, it is more suited to some professions than others. McKinsey’s 2020 report on the state of remote work found that for those that work in transportation, food services, property maintenance, and agriculture there is little to no opportunity for remote work.

Outlook For The Office In 2021

However, during the pandemic when outside movements were restricted, 29% of fully remote professionals felt burned out as compared to 26% of on-site workers. That said, you should prioritize the mental health of your employees. What’s more, 71% of remote workers say they are happy in their jobs as compared to 55% of on-site workers. Furthermore, 81% of workers would be more loyal to their employers if they had flexible work options, including remote work. More recently, a survey by Boston Consulting Group found that despite the challenges of the pandemic, 75% of employees feel that they have maintained or improved their productivity. More than half of the employees surveyed said they prefer working in a fully remote environment.

global remote work statistics 2020

81 percent of hybrid employees are highly engaged followed by 78 percent of remote employees. Only 72 percent of on-site employees report high engagement levels.

Work From Home Jobs Statistics By Industry

If this goes on too long, it can cause a significant decrease in people’s psychological and emotional well-being, resulting in a greater need for quality online therapy. Unsurprisingly, this also means that employees want to stick around for longer. Who would have thought that working from home can increase your productivity? Well, the proof is in the pudding, or in the numbers in this case. If you’d like to incorporate remote work as a strategy in your business, that’s fantastic news. In total, more people work from home at least occasionally than those who don’t at all.

PwC’s surveyed 133 employers and 1,200 workers and found that 83% of employers considered their move to remote work options was successful. Interestingly, PwC conducted the same survey in 2020 and the number was 73% — still a large majority, but the increase is a strong signal that employers are ironing out the challenges of remote work. Over the years, Remote.co has cultivated a community of employers and employees to facilitate idea sharing and tips, along with fully remote job postings. If you want to learn all about working remotely or implementing long-term remote work for your business, visit our Q&A with some of the top remote companies. Employees are looking for remote positions that come with flexibility as well as the security and benefits that come with traditional office-based jobs.

  • In many companies, determining what to do with the office is the focal point of a much larger discussion.
  • Matt Mullenweg, the founder of Automattic , another all-remote company, told me that its policy is to pay the same wages for the same roles, regardless of location.
  • 79% of respondents think video conferencing is at the same level or more productive than in-person meetings.
  • However, it’s not all good news – there are also some drawbacks.

Employee respondents were either required to work from home because of the pandemic or did so routinely anyway. At the same time, the pandemic is accelerating an outward migration of knowledge workers from New York and California to less-expensive locales. Raleigh, N.C., and Austin, Texas, the top real estate markets at the start of 2021, are among the boomtowns attracting more than their share of young workers. Several recent high-profile corporate relocation announcements suggest that some employers are inclined to follow this migration. Just 5% of US company executives surveyed in 2020 believe that “employees don’t need to be in the office to maintain company culture”.

Employees See Many Advantages To Remote Work

Only one industry (research and development/innovation) reported a decrease in productivity by more than 20% of organizations (26%). A 2021 survey conducted across multiple countries including the US and the UK found 52% of respondents deemed “increased productivity” to be the biggest benefit to remote work. A 2020 survey found that 56% of remote workers had been working from home for less than a year. Remote work seems to be more than a passing https://remotemode.net/ fad and is probably here to stay. As the population ages and younger generations become the bulk of the workforce, remote work options are expected to become a standard feature of employment, not a nice perk or benefit. Companies that allow some kind of remote work of flexible scheduling experience 25% less turnover than companies that don’t. Remote work decreases stress levels which increases job satisfaction and thus company loyalty .

Statistics on remote workers reveal that more than 4.7 million people work remotely at least half the time in the United States. 44% of companies do not allow remote work and only 16% of companies hire remote only workers. Transitioning to an all-remote or a majority-remote organization sometimes requires jumping regulatory hurdles as well. Any all-remote organization thinking about hiring talent globally has to consider local labor laws as they relate to hiring, compensation, pensions, vacation, and sick leave. How to set compensation for workers who work from anywhere is an active and interesting debate. As mentioned, it’s a benefit to be able to reside in a lower-cost-of-living locale while earning the income one would in a more expensive one.

By contrast, 70% of those working remotely part of the time would prefer a hybrid arrangement; the rest were divided, at 15% each, between wanting to be fully remote or fully on-site. In contrast to the high rate of remote work in white-collar professions, working remotely is far less prevalent among workers with interactions that typically occur in person, such as in education (48%) and healthcare (35%). Workplace Solutions Learn how to develop and engage employees to create an exceptional workplace and boost your business outcomes.

A Gallup poll discovered that three in five US workers who have been working remotely during the pandemic say they want to continue doing so afterwards. In contrast 41% would prefer to return to their workplace or office, as they did before the crisis. European countries that has the most remote workers prior to the pandemic. Employers will have to recognize that workforce needs and desires have shifted due to the pandemic. They need to understand the concerns of their employees and work with them to build policies and approaches. The return to work will be effective only when employees are on board. Though almost all companies surveyed expect to be back on their premises and able to support 50% capacity by the end of 2021, much can change.

I’ve been browsing online more than three hours today, yet I never found any interesting article like yours. Personally, if all site owners and bloggers made good content as you did, the net will be much more useful than ever before. However, that doesn’t mean that it doesn’t come with its fair share of challenges. This is especially true for specific industries, for example, transport.

As with the rate of remote work among all full-time employees, remote working among white-collar workers has been steady in recent months. However, the percentage has dwindled since January’s 79% as the vaccination rate among Americans has increased, giving more people the confidence and freedom to return to the office.

In San Francisco the average rent on a two-bedroom apartment is $4,128; in Tulsa it’s a mere $675. Workers were often also given control over their schedules, allowing them to make time for school pickups, errands, or midday exercise without being seen as shirking.

58% Of Workers Would Look For A New Job If They Cant Continue Working Remotely

Additionally, for you as an employer, it would mean that your workforce will be less likely to back out of your arrangement. But these predictions give us a pretty solid idea of where working from home is heading. Obviously, there will be some jobs that will be a breeze to do from home. As soon as workers are not on-site, it becomes much more difficult to have control over the organization’s security infrastructure.