Even after the end of the obligation for employers to enable home office, working from home will continue. In August, the proportion of workers doing this at least partially was 24.5 percent, according to a survey by the Munich-based Ifo Institute published on Monday. This is only 0.4 percentage points less than in the last survey in April.
“The obligation to work from home expired in March, but since then use has only fallen minimally,” said Jean-Victor Alipour from the Ifo Institute. In March, the rate was 27.6 percent. The highest value reported by the Ifo was was reached in March last year with 31.7 percent.
“Apparently, companies and employees are working from home permanently,” Alipour concluded. Various companies and corporations have already announced the same thing, citing the wishes of employees as a reason, among other things “possible only to a limited extent”.
The highest percentage of employees who are at least partially in the home office was in August in the service sector at 35.5 percent across the sector – above all the sub-groups of management consultants and IT service providers, each with a good 71 percent. Retail and construction, on the other hand, were the sectors with the lowest values at 5.4 and 5.1 percent respectively. Manufacturing and wholesale each accounted for a good 15 percent. (dpa)