Germany above EU average
Corona pandemic over – but the home office is alive
07/11/2023 10:38 am
The end of the corona pandemic in Germany does not mean that workers are flocking back to the office in droves. Many still take advantage of the opportunity to work from home. However, it depends heavily on the industry how much home office is possible.
Even after the end of the corona pandemic, many people continue to work from home. In Germany, 24.2 percent of all employees in 2022 were at least occasionally in the home office, as reported by the Federal Statistical Office. The proportion was hardly lower than the 24.9 percent in the previous year, which was still clearly characterized by corona protection measures such as the temporary obligation to work from home. Compared to the pre-Corona level, the proportion has almost doubled: in 2019, 12.8 percent were still working from home; in the first Corona year, 2020, it was 21.0 percent.
Naturally, the degree of home office depends on the respective industry. The highest proportion in 2022 was in the IT services sector: Here, a good three quarters (76 percent) of dependent employees worked from home at least occasionally. In the administration and management of companies as well as in management consulting it was 73 percent, in insurance, reinsurance and pension funds it was 70 percent. In the healthcare sector, on the other hand, very few employees, at 6.6 percent, were able to do their work at home. Even in construction or retail, with around eight percent each, working from home was only rarely possible.
In an international comparison, Germany was above the EU-wide average in 2022, but far behind the front runners. In the 27 countries of the European Union, an average of 22.6 percent of all employees aged 15 and over work from home at least occasionally. In the Netherlands (53.2 percent), in Sweden (45.0 percent) and Finland (40.6 percent), the share of working from home was highest in the EU, in Romania (4.3 percent), Bulgaria (4, 4 percent) and Greece (9.8 percent) the lowest.