According to a survey by the Ifo Institute, more people worked from home again in the fourth corona wave. However, the peak value of March 2021 will hardly be exceeded in any industry. According to the institute, this could also be due to the fact that “not all companies” “observe” the obligation to work from home, which was reintroduced at the end of November.
Peak values in spring 2021
While in March 2021, with a view to the overall economy, 31.7 percent of working people were at least temporarily working from home, the value in December was just under 27.9 percent. The low of the year was in August at 23.8 percent.
In the fourth Corona wave, the home office values remain below the peak values of spring 2021.
(Image: ifo Institute)
You can see clear differences between individual industries. While service providers and wholesalers allowed around five percent more people to work from home in December compared to August, there was little change in the home office figures in industry, and especially in retail, in the second half of the year. In August the value in retail was 5.3 percent, in December it was only 6.6 percent. In contrast, the peak value for retail was 11.4 percent in March 2021.
Big differences in detailed considerations
Jean-Victor Alipour, an expert on home office at the Ifo Institute, concludes that not all companies comply with the home office obligation, which was reintroduced at the end of November: “The rate has risen again. It is, however, a good 4 percentage points below the high in March 2021. Only among broadcasters and telecommunications did the rate rise again: 63 and 65 percent of employees there worked from home for their employer. “
Information technology service providers occupy the top position with 76 percent in the institute’s more detailed comparisons. Gastronomy and accommodation have traditionally the lowest home office value at 2.7 and 2.5 percent.
(Image: ifo Institute)
The ifo Institute estimates that 56 percent of employees across all sectors could work at least partially in the home office. This calculation is based on an employment survey that was carried out by the Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training before the coronavirus pandemic. People who did not explicitly exclude working from home in this survey due to their work are classified as “at least partially” capable of working from home.
Apparently no big changes compared to 2020
According to its own information, the Ifo Institute did not collect comparative figures from 2020, but refers to a comparison of various surveys – including a monthly survey by the Institute for Applied Social Science (infas). In 2020, Infas achieved slightly higher values than, for example, a representative survey by the Economics and Social Science Institute of the Hans Böckler Foundation. There, the proportion of people working from home during the first lockdown in April 2020 was at times 27 percent.
The Institute for Applied Social Science (infas) has been collecting home office use monthly (with the exception of December 2020) since April 2020 and – according to the topic report – thus offers the longest time series in the corona pandemic.
(Image: Topical report Corona data platform, ifo Institute, infas)
As the Ifo Institute found in autumn, a home office option has been offered much more frequently to employees since 2019, at least in job advertisements. Between 2019 and 2021, the value rose to 12 percent, more than tripling.
(kbe)