Very Slight Increase in Working from Home in May
Slightly more German employees worked from home in May than in the previous month, according to an ifo Institute survey. It found that the number of employees who worked from home at least part of the time rose from 30.8 to 31.0 percent.
Rates in manufacturing saw a small increase from 22.4 to 22.9 percent. Among service providers, they were up from 41.1 to 41.5 percent. In trade, the proportion of people working from home fell from 18.9 to 18.2 percent, and in construction, from 11.3 to 9.9 percent. The ifo Institute estimates that for the entire German economy, 56 percent of employees could potentially work from home.
But the largely unchanged average values conceal major differences and opposing developments in the sectors. For beverage producers, for example, the share was down from 15.0 to 10.2 percent, but for textile manufacturers, it climbed from 15.4 to 19.3 percent. Advertisers and market researchers saw rates rise from 64.6 to 73.3 percent, while among researchers and developers, they dropped from 55.4 to 49.1 percent. IT service providers remain the frontrunners with 80.4 percent of employees working from home (up 0.6 points).
The ifo Podcast “Economy for All” has more information about working from home.
