Nearly 40% of Germans work from home—much more than before the pandemic, according to the German Institute for Economic Research in Berlin (DIW Berlin).
The study analyzed data from 2014 to 2022. Before the lockdowns, only 11.1% of respondents could work remotely at least once a week; 13.8% worked remotely occasionally, and 75.1% never worked from home. After the coronavirus restrictions were lifted, these figures changed significantly: “sometimes” and “at least once a week” in a home office began to apply to 9.8% and 29.6% of workers, respectively, while “never” dropped to 60.6%.
According to Jan Goebel, head of the DIW Berlin Data Research Department, “The pandemic turned the home office in Germany from an exception into an important part of everyday work life.” However, the ability to work remotely greatly depends on the sector of the economy and the size of the company—it’s more common in large organizations than in medium or small firms. IT specialists, employees of large companies in the real estate, financial services, and public administration sectors most commonly work from home—about 80%.
Freelancers and professionals in the fields of science and technical services had a relatively high rate of home office work even before the lockdown, and this did not increase significantly after the restrictions were lifted. In contrast, in the field of education and teaching, remote work is much less common. The exception is language teachers who conduct online courses from home.
As the authors of the study note, those who work from home are more satisfied with their work, income, and life in general.
