Remote work statistics
The remote work experiment is over. The results are in. And surprise—most people don’t want to go back to the way things were. We’re past the panic of 2020, past the “temporary” home offices, past pretending this is all going back to normal. Companies and employees have figured out what works, and now they’re fine-tuning instead of firefighting.
Here’s what your workforce really wants: 51% say hybrid is the sweet spot—some office time, some home time, best of both worlds. Another 28% have gone full remote and aren’t looking back. That leaves just 21% who want to be in the office five days a week. The old default is now the minority position. Let that sink in.
Gradual return: 61% of U.S. employees have returned to the office full-time in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, especially as federal and corporate return-to-office (RTO) mandates become more prevalent.
Source: Mitel
Online all the time: 17.7% of employees said not being able to unplug after the workday is a constant struggle when working from home.
Source: We Work Remotely
Uncertain outlook: 41% of employees say their employers’ policies about when and where people work are not equally applied throughout the company.
Source: Owl Labs
Shifting priorities: 40% of workers would accept at least a 5% pay cut to retain remote work options, while 9% would sacrifice 20% or more of their salaries.
Source: Harvard Business School
Who works remotely
Remote work isn’t going anywhere. What started as a desperate response to lockdowns has become the new foundation of how we work. The emergency is over, but the changes stuck. Companies that thought they’d “get back to normal” are realizing this IS normal now—and they need to figure out how to make it work long-term.
But here’s what nobody talks about enough: remote work isn’t one-size-fits-all. Parents with young kids? They’ll fight to keep their home office—no more missing bedtime for a commute. New grads trying to learn the ropes? They’re asking to come into the office because Zoom calls don’t teach you how to read a room or build a network. Everyone wants flexibility, but they want different kinds of it.
The numbers tell the real story: 40% of job postings worldwide now offer remote or hybrid options. We’re not just talking about tech companies and startups anymore. Banks are doing it. Hospitals are doing it. Even logistics companies—industries you’d never expect—are finding ways to make remote work happen. When nearly half of all jobs offer flexibility, it’s not a perk anymore. It’s table stakes.
Source: Robert Half
Persistent adoption: Despite RTO mandates, 22% of U.S. workers (32.6 million people) remain remote, reflecting a 5x increase from pre-pandemic levels.
Source: Neat
Global flexibility: 83% of employees now view hybrid models as ideal, offering autonomy while preserving collaboration.
Source: Neat
Parents prioritize flexibility: 77% of working mothers say hybrid work is one of the most important factors when considering a job, with 74% prioritizing remote work.
Source: BankRate
Caregiving influences flexible work preferences: Two-thirds of family caregivers struggle to balance their jobs with caregiving duties. In turn, 45% of working caregivers now have access to flexible hours (up from 32% in 2020).
Source: AARP
Early career professionals value in-office time: Gen Z increasingly views offices as skill-building hubs rather than mere workspaces, with 91% valuing in-person collaboration for professional growth.
Source: Freeman
Industry variations in remote work: Technology (26% hybrid, 17% remote), marketing and creative (27% hybrid, 15% remote), and finance and accounting (27% hybrid, 11% remote) have the highest rates of flexible work arrangements.
Source: FlexJobs
Gender differences in remote work: Women are slightly more likely to prefer fully remote work (58%) compared to men (42%) who want to work from home full time.
Source: FlexJobs
Remote work trends
The home office reality looks different for everyone. Some people converted that spare bedroom and never looked back. Others packed up their overpriced city apartments and bought actual houses in places they could never afford before. The executive who used to demand face time? She’s running meetings from her kitchen table in Vermont. The developer who lived in San Francisco because he had to? He’s coding from Costa Rica now.
But let’s cut through the noise: people aren’t just tolerating remote work—they’re thriving in it. Fifty-one percent say they’re more creative at home, and nearly half report better focus when they’re not dealing with drive-by desk visits and open office chaos. Turns out, those “water cooler conversations” everyone worried about losing weren’t as valuable as the deep work time people gained. Who knew that removing a two-hour commute and constant interruptions would help people think better?
Source: ActivTrak
20% of remote workers plan to relocate this year (2025), driven by lifestyle, cost, and housing needs.
Source: Howdy
32% of remote workers report changed housing needs with their work arrangement, with 24% prioritizing home offices or quiet spaces.
Source: Howdy
67% of employees encounter distractions during remote meetings, while 72% of workers report delays or issues with video conferencing technology.
49% of those planning to relocate in 2025 are moving to suburban areas, compared to only 29% relocating to urban settings and 22% headed to rural areas.
Source: Howdy
83% of global employees now view hybrid arrangements (mixing in-office and remote days) as ideal, blending flexibility with collaboration.
Source: Neat
60% of professionals said they would seek another job if they weren’t allowed to work remotely some of the time, forfeiting benefits like health insurance or paid time off.
Source: Gallup
35% of people cite unclear protocols, and 34% complain about too many meetings, prioritizing structured vs. frequent interactions.
Source: We Work Remotely
29% of participants in remote work skills certification achieved an average 171% salary growth.
Source: Purdue
Productivity statistics
Remember when everyone said remote work would fail because you can’t collaborate through a screen? Yeah, about that. Turns out, people figured out Zoom and Slack pretty quickly. More importantly, they discovered something companies spent decades denying: most office work doesn’t actually require an office.
The productivity panic never materialized. Instead, we got the opposite—57% of employees are getting more done at home than they ever did in a cubicle. And deadlines? Forty-nine percent are hitting them more consistently now. No commute, no coworker dropping by to “just chat for a sec,” no mandatory meetings that should have been emails. Just actual time to do actual work. The flexible nature that everyone worried would lead to slacking off? It led to people working when they’re most effective, not when the clock says they should.
Source: ActivTrak
Employees who trust colleagues’ cooperation are 8.2x more likely to exceed expectations.
Source: Great Place to Work
39% of professionals confess they get less done in the office due to socializing with coworkers.
Source: We Work Remotely
Remote-only workers log 51 more productive minutes/day compared to hybrid and in-office peers.
Source: ActivTrak
86% of employees and executives attribute a lack of effective communication and collaboration as the leading causes of failures in the workplace.
Source: Pumble
33% of employees working in a hybrid dynamic were less likely to quit their jobs compared to those in the office.
Source: Nature
Remote workers enjoy 4.5 hours more focused time per week than their in-office counterparts.
Source: Hubstaff
Of the companies on the 2025 list of Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For®, 97% of them support remote or hybrid work, and productivity is about 42% higher compared to a typical U.S. workplace.
Source: Great Place to Work
Why do people opt for remote work?
The math is simple: that daily commute was stealing 10 hours a week, 500 hours a year. That’s three entire weeks of your life spent staring at brake lights. Remote workers did the calculation and decided they wanted those three weeks back. Trading gridlock for a 50-foot shuffle to the home office? That’s not lazy—that’s just smart.
But killing the commute was just the gateway drug. The real addiction is flexibility. Your life doesn’t run on a 9-to-5 schedule, so why should your work? Kid’s school play at 2 PM? You’re there. The plumber can only come between 10 and 2? No problem. Want to work out when the gym’s empty instead of fighting the after-work crowd? Go ahead. Remote work didn’t just change where people work—it changed when and how they live.
79% of remote professionals report lower stress levels, and 82% cite improved mental health linked to flexible schedules.
Source: Neat
48% of professionals said less stress is the top health-related benefit they experience from working remotely.
Source: U.S. Career Institute
31% of exclusively remote professionals are more likely to be engaged with their work compared to 19% of strictly in-office workers.
Source: Gallup
22% of people say the flexibility to work from any location is the top benefit of working remotely.
Source: Buffer
71% of remote working professionals found that flexible working hours contribute to a healthy work-life balance.
Source: Owl Labs
Remote employees are up to 40% more productive than those who work in a traditional office setting.
Source: ActivTrak
34% of those who work remotely reported reduced anxiety and depression as a leading benefit.
Source: U.S. Career Institute
Employees save $6,000 annually on commuting, meals, and work attire, while employers reduce overhead costs by $11,000 per employee.
Source: Neat
76% of professionals said having flexibility in when and where they work shapes their desire to remain with an employer.
Source: Robert Half
Mothers who work full-time from home spend an average of 2.4 additional hours per workday with their children compared to those who work full-time outside the home.
Source: Institute for Family Studies
Challenges of remote work
Some people genuinely loved office life. Not the commute, not the dress code, but the people. The inside jokes that made Mondays bearable. The colleague who always knew when you needed coffee. The random desk visits that turned into career-changing conversations. Remote work kept the meetings, but killed the moments between them. You can’t recreate spontaneous connection with scheduled Zoom happy hours—trust us, everyone’s tried.
And here’s what nobody tells you about working where you live: your brain never gets the memo that work is over. Your dining table becomes your desk, and suddenly every meal feels like a working lunch. That end-of-day ritual where you’d pack up, say goodbye, and mentally switch off? Gone. Now it’s just you, closing your laptop at 6 p.m. (or 7, or 9) while your unfinished tasks lurk in the next room. The boundaries you never had to think about before? You have to build them yourself now, and most of us are terrible architects.
69% of remote workers report burnout from digital tools, with professionals logging extended hours (7 a.m. to 7 p.m.) due to blurred boundaries.
Source: Forbes Advisor
19% of remote workers struggle to unplug and take sufficient time off, despite the flexibility to do so.
Source: We Work Remotely
40% of remote workers fake activity to appear busy on their employers’ monitoring systems.
Source: Headway
38% of professionals who work from home have gained weight since switching to remote work.
Source: Headway
25% of fully remote employees report experiencing loneliness at work, compared to 16% of fully in-office professionals.
Source: Future Forum
81% of remote professionals claim they check email outside of work hours, including on weekends (63%) and vacations (34%).
Source: Buffer
55% of remote working employees express difficulty feeling connected to their coworkers.
Source: Pew Research Center
18% of remote workers say that time zone collaboration issues wreak havoc on distributed teams, delaying projects and limiting engagement.
Source: We Work Remotely
56% of remote professionals go entire weeks without setting foot outside their home, while 25% do not speak to anyone for days.
Source: Headway
The future of remote work
The future of work? Nobody knows, but everyone’s picking sides. Employees have tasted freedom, and they’re not giving it back. They’re so serious about staying remote that many would take less money before returning to a cubicle. That’s not a negotiating tactic—that’s people deciding their sanity is worth more than a salary bump.
Meanwhile, executives are staring at empty offices they’re still paying for, wondering when everyone’s coming back. They miss the control, the “culture,” the ability to see butts in seats. Some are mandating returns. Others are bribing people with perks. A few are admitting defeat and going fully remote. It’s a standoff, and neither side is blinking. The only certainty? The five-day office week is dead, and whatever replaces it will look nothing like what we had before.
98% of employees said they want to work from home at least some days per week for the rest of their careers.
Source: Buffer
36% of surveyed employees would choose a “work from anywhere” model when looking for a new job.
Source: Zoom
46% of remote-capable workers say they’d be unlikely to stay at their job if remote work were to end, with 26% stating they’d be very unlikely to stay.
Source: Pew Research Center
74% of HR leaders cite return-to-office mandates as a source of leadership conflict.
Source: Gartner
83% of employees value work-life balance in their current or future jobs, even surpassing pay.
Source: Randstad
U.S. office vacancy rates reached 19.9% in March 2025, with tech hubs such as Austin exceeding 25%.
Source: CommercialEdge
28% of employers are autonomously “employee choice,” meaning they have office space available but no requirements for employees to work in the office.
Source: CBRE
70% of businesses are now investing in AI-driven collaboration tools and virtual offices to enhance remote work capabilities
Source: Gartner
Remote work around the globe
Companies with global teams are watching everyone else freak out about remote work and thinking, “Welcome to our world.” They’ve been juggling time zones, running virtual meetings, and collaborating through screens for years. When the rest of the world discovered Zoom in 2020, these teams were already five years deep into making remote work actually work.
But even the pros are dealing with new challenges. The difference now? Scale. It’s one thing when your development team in India works remotely with your sales team in Seattle. It’s another when literally everyone is remote and your junior analyst is suddenly Slacking you from Bali. Digital nomads aren’t just a lifestyle blog fantasy anymore—they’re your actual employees, working from a different country every month because why not? Your fully remote policy said “work from anywhere,” and they took you literally. Now you’re googling tax implications for employees who’ve worked in six countries this quarter.
Remote teams experience an 11% drop in real-time communication per one1-hour time zone difference.
Source: Rice University
English-speaking countries have the highest levels of work from home at about 2 days per week on average.
Source: Stanford
In Europe, Denmark, the Netherlands, and Germany are the top three countries for remote working.
Source: World Economic Forum
68% of Asia-Pacific companies employ more than 70% of full-time remote employees and around 30% remote contractors, indicating the region’s trending shift toward remote work adoption.
Source: IDC
20% of remote workers plan to relocate in 2025, as lifestyle-driven migration continues reshaping residential patterns.
Source: Howdy
In the U.S., the top five states that remote workers are leaving in 2025 include Florida (9.5%), California (9.5%), Texas (6.5%), Illinois (6.5%), and New York (6%).
Source: Howdy
The top five states that remote workers are moving to in 2025 are Texas (12.3%), California (9.4%), Florida (8.4%), Virginia (4.4%), and Arizona (3.9%)
Source: Howdy
Spain, Portugal, Canada, New Zealand, and Japan ranked among the top five best countries for remote work based on an analysis of social and economic factors.
Source: Workwize
Millennials made up 50% of workers who moved to another country while working remotely.
Source: Owl Labs
What employees really think about working from home
The battle lines are drawn. Employees have made it crystal clear: remote work isn’t a pandemic perk they’re giving back. But employers? They’re hedging their bets. The Flex Index data tells the story: 43% of U.S. companies have settled on structured hybrid, while 33% are still demanding everyone show up five days a week. That middle ground sounds reasonable until you realize what it means for the holdouts.
Here’s where it gets real: this isn’t just about preferences anymore. Pew Research found that 46% of remote-capable workers would straight-up leave if they had to go back full-time. Not “would consider leaving.” Would leave. We’re talking about half your workforce ready to walk if you kill remote work. New grads, senior executives, everyone in between—they’re all willing to bet their careers on staying home. That’s not a retention risk. That’s a retention crisis waiting to happen.
Why are people so attached to remote work? It’s not complicated. They’ve restructured their entire lives around it. No commute means seeing their kids before bedtime. Midday grocery runs mean weekends are weekends again. They’re not slacking—they’re fitting life around work instead of the other way around. And it turns out, most people get more done when they’re not exhausted from the daily grind.
But let’s be honest about what’s broken. Companies thought they could just move meetings online and call it done. Instead, they got confused workflows, dying collaboration, and new hires who’ve never met their team. The water cooler conversations everyone mocked? Turns out they were holding a lot together. Now companies need to figure out how to build connections without proximity, train people who’ll never see the office, and keep async teams from becoming isolated islands.
The path forward isn’t about choosing sides—it’s about making whatever you choose work. That means real onboarding for remote employees, not just shipping them a laptop. Clear processes for who works where and when. Systems that don’t fall apart when half your team is in different time zones. Because whether you go full remote, full office, or somewhere in between, the old playbook is dead. Time to write a new one.
Remote work and company culture
Building company culture without an actual company office? Yeah, it’s as hard as it sounds. You can’t rely on pizza Fridays, ping-pong tables, or those accidental conversations by the coffee machine anymore. When your team is scattered across living rooms and home offices, you can’t just hope culture happens—you have to deliberately create it.
The old playbook is useless here. Team bonding used to mean after-work drinks. Shared values came from seeing how people acted in the office every day. New hires learned the culture by osmosis, picking up on unwritten rules just by being around. Now? You need actual strategies that work through screens. You need creative ways to make people feel connected when they might never meet in person. It’s not impossible, but it requires completely rethinking how culture gets built.
Research underscores this complicated relationship between remote work, employee engagement, and organizational culture. A recent Gallup poll revealed a mixed picture of employee engagement in the remote workplace. While overall engagement has increased to 34% in 2024 (up from 32% in 2022), there’s a concerning trend among remote workers.
Only 28% of fully remote employees feel strongly connected to their company’s mission. That’s not just a number—that’s seven out of ten people who couldn’t tell you why their company exists beyond “we make money.” They’re doing the work, collecting the paycheck, but feeling absolutely nothing about the bigger picture. That should terrify any leader who thinks culture matters.
But here’s the twist: employees still choose remote work anyway. Buffer’s survey found that 98% want to work remotely at least part-time. They’d rather feel disconnected than commute. In fact, 50% would take a pay cut just to keep working from home. Think about that—half your workforce values flexibility over money, even if it means feeling like a stranger at their own company. That’s not a preference anymore. That’s a fundamental shift in what people want from work.
Setting the stage for a thriving remote work culture will likely be a key differentiator for adaptable organizations. Companies that hire remotely naturally attract and retain more talent.
Who wants remote work (and who doesn’t)
Every generation thinks they invented remote work preferences, but here’s what’s actually happening: your Gen Z developer, millennial manager, and Gen X executive all want completely different things from flexible work. And if you’re treating them all the same, you’re probably frustrating everyone.
The differences aren’t subtle, either. Each generation brings its own baggage, expectations, and non-negotiables to the remote work debate. What looks like resistance from one group might be wisdom. What seems like entitlement from another might be them seeing possibilities you missed. Get this wrong, and you’ll build a workplace that works for nobody.
A recent study by Pyn highlights that while remote work is generally popular, the degree of enthusiasm and specific needs vary. Millennials, for instance, strongly prefer hybrid work models and cite concerns about mental health and burnout as key factors.
Gen Z faces unique challenges in the remote work environment. Fortune found that 43% of Gen Zers reported decreased productivity during remote work, the highest percentage among all generations surveyed. What’s even more compelling is Gen Z’s resurgence back to the office.
In the U.S., Fortune later reported that 92% of those between the ages of 16 and 24 did not work remotely at all, indicating a dramatic trend of Gen Z workers being present in physical offices.
In contrast, Gen X and Baby Boomers demonstrate a higher inclination towards fully remote work. In a FlexJobs report, 42% of Gen X and 27% of millennials were working remotely full-time, compared to only 11% of Gen Z.
Remote work FAQs
Remote work has created new questions for employers to answer. We’ve rounded up some of the most common.
What percentage of the workforce is remote?
The latest data from Gallup shows that approximately 28% of employed adults in the U.S. now conduct their work entirely from home-based settings, with a little over half (51%) operating on a hybrid model. Globally, 28% of the workforce operates remotely, with 16% of companies now fully remote, according to Neat.
How effective is remote work?
Though employers report skepticism about remote employee productivity, the employees themselves report that productivity levels are on par with or even greater than pre-pandemic levels. The biggest reason for the reported increase in productivity is that employees have greater flexibility to work when it’s convenient for their schedule.
Are remote workers happier?
Remote and hybrid workers report higher engagement, improved work-life balance, and greater time for family and mental health. For example, data shows that 31% of remote employees say spending time with loved ones is the best part of flexible work, and 26% prioritize mental health.
While remote work boosts engagement, hybrid arrangements tend to deliver the highest rates of thriving and well-being. Fully remote workers are highly engaged but may be slightly less likely than hybrids to feel they are “thriving” in life due to potential social isolation.
Do remote workers get paid less?
Remote workers in the U.S. earn similar wages to their in-office counterparts. The average salary for a remote worker is around $57,500 per year ($28/hour), with no widespread trend of pay reductions for going remote, according to July 2025 ZipRecruiter data.
Most employers report that they do not lower pay for existing employees who switch to remote work. In fact, salary parity is commonly maintained across locations, though compensation bands may reflect regional cost-of-living differences for new hires.
Optimize your remote workforce with Pebl
Your competition isn’t limiting their talent search to a 30-mile radius anymore. While you’re fighting over the same local candidates, they’re hiring brilliant people in Prague, Singapore, and São Paulo. Remote work didn’t just change where people work—it changed who you can hire. And if you’re not taking advantage of that, you’re already behind.
Here’s what’s stopping most companies: the complexity. Different employment laws in every country. Payroll systems that don’t talk to each other. Tax requirements you’ve never heard of. Benefits packages that make no sense outside your home country. It’s enough to make you give up and just keep hiring locally.
That’s where Pebl (previously Velocity Global) comes in. As an Employer of Record (EOR), we’ve already figured out how to hire, pay, and manage teams in over 185 countries. You find the talent—anywhere in the world—and we handle everything else. Compliance? Covered. Payroll? Automated. Local benefits that make sense? Done. You get access to the world’s best talent without becoming an expert in international employment law.
Stop letting borders limit your business. Contact us to see how we make hiring globally as simple as hiring next door.
Topic:
Work News + Trends
