Berlin (Reuters) – Even after the corona pandemic has subsided, employees in Germany are hesitant to return to the office.
The proportion of home office users fell slightly to 24.0 percent in April, after 24.7 percent in February. This emerges from a survey published on Wednesday by the Munich Ifo Institute. “The decline is only minimal, despite the discussions about returning to the office,” said Ifo expert Jean-Victor Alipour. “Overall, the home office rate remains at a significantly higher level than before Corona.” In 2019 – the year before the outbreak of the pandemic – only ten percent of employees worked at least partly from home.
“Behind the average figures there are considerable differences between the sectors,” the researchers explained. In the pharmaceutical industry, the share jumped from 21.6 to 32.8 percent in April. In the case of lawyers, tax consultants and auditors, on the other hand, it fell from 47.1 to 40.1 percent.
In the case of computer service providers and technicians as well as in management consulting, people work from home particularly often, namely around 70 percent. The home office is also widespread in advertising and market research. 57.2 percent of employees work from home here, three times as many as in 2019.
Where activities are fundamentally difficult to reconcile with home office, the rates and changes are correspondingly low compared to 2019. In gastronomy, for example, the proportion remained unchanged at 1.6 percent. In accommodation, it rose from 0.6 to 0.9 percent.
A good year ago, all serious corona restrictions were abolished – including mandatory home office regulations intended to contain the pandemic. According to surveys, around one in six employees did not want to go back to the office even after the obligation had expired.
(Report by Rene Wagner, edited by Ralf Bode. If you have any questions, please contact our editorial team at [email protected])