How many persons are working from home?
Different terms are used to describe work from home. "Telework" or "home office" are the once used most often for persons working in office jobs. The indictor also counts persons working for example in cosmetics, hairdressing or in care occupations who perform their job from home.
Working from home provides the opportunity to better balance working and non-working life. However, working from home can also be problematic. The possibility to work at home may easily result in overwork. It is possible that the boundaries between work and leisure get lost, which may have a negative impact on non-working life. Another issue that may arise is contstant 'contactability' through colleagues.
Nevertheless from the point of employed persons, family and other personal commitments can be better fulfilled and leisure time can be used more effectively. Employers can also benefit from this flexible form of work: it can increase motivation, prevent absenteeism and thus increase performance and productivity.
Due to the corona pandemic, working from home has become increasingly important. The legal obligation for employers to offer homeoffice has resulted in many jobs that can be performed at home being shifted to the employee's own four walls.
The indicator shows the share of employed persons aged 15 years or more who, in their main job, work usually (= daily or more than half of the working time) or sometimes (= less than the half of the working time) in home office.
Nearly one quarter of all employed persons work from home
In 2022, 24.2% of all employed persons in Germany were working from home. Of these, 14.7% use the home office daily or at least more than half of the working time. Another 9.5% worked from home on less than half of the working days. The share has almost doubled compared to pre-corona level. In 2019, 12.9% of the employed had worked in a home office; in the first year of the pandemic in 2020, the figure was 21.0%.
Whether and to what extent employed persons work from home also depends on whether they are employees or self-employed. Self-employed with employees (38.7%) work significantly more often from home than employees (22.1%). While the share of self-employed with employees has hardly changed compared to 2019, employees are significantly more likely to work from home than before corona (2019: 9.6%). Solo self-employed with a share of 53.9% work most often from home. Of these, around 76% spent every day or at least half of their working time at home.
The differences are not so big when socio-demographic aspects such as gender or age are considered. Differences are also apparent when sociodemographic aspects such as gender or age are considered. With 25.0%, men work slightly more often from home than women (23.3%). The employed at the age from 35 to 44 used the option of working from home with 28.5% more frequently than the employed population in total.
Occupation determines home office
The use of home office varies even more significantly by occupation. Not all activities are suitable for being performed at home. The share of employees working from home is highest in those occupations in which work is predominantly done at a desk: 50.6% of professionals and 42.2% of managers work from home. Clerical support workers (27.2%) and technicians (27.2%) also work from home more frequently.
In occupations where presence at the place of work is expected, the share of employed persons in home office is obviously small. The smallest share can be found for persons working as plant and machine operators (1.8%) and as unskilled workers (2.2%).
| Occupational categories | In % |
|---|---|
| Source: Labour Force Survey | |
| Managers | 42.2 |
| Professional and academics | 50.6 |
| Technicians and associate professionals | 27.2 |
| Clerical support workers | 27.2 |
| Service and sales workers | 5.6 |
| Skilled agricultural, forestry and fishery workers | 22.8 |
| Craft and related trades workers | 5.8 |
| Plant and machine operators, and assemblers | 1.8 |
| Elementary occupations/ unskilled workers | 2.2 |
Information on the Indicator
Description or definition
Share of employed persons aged 15 years or more who, in their main job, work usually (= daily or more than half of the working time) or sometimes (= less than the half of the working time) in home office.
Source
Labour Force Survey
Information to interpretation
Self-employed work more often from home than employees. Therefore, these groups should be examined separately.
The microcensus with the integrated European labour force survey has been redesigned in 2020. The list of questions and the concept of the sample survey were modified, and with the introduction of an online questionnaire, the form of data collection were also changed. The results from survey year 2020 onward are therefore comparable with those of previous years only to a limited extent.
Due to the change of the reporting period from 3 months to 4 weeks from the reporting year 2017 onwards, time series comparisons are not possible.
Further methodological changes affecting the results were performed in 2005, 2011 and 2021. Consequently, the results for those years can be compared with the results for previous years to a limited extent only.
The extrapolation of microcensus data uses the population figures from the 2011 Census, which was conducted as at 9 May 2011. The results have been revised from 2010 onwards. With effect from the year 2016, the sample is based on the 2011 census data. This transition affects the comparability of the results with previous years.
For more information please refer to Methods: Quality Reports and Explanations (only in German).
Further information
Redesigned microcensus as of 2020