Fewer People in Germany are Working from Home
The proportion of employees working from home in Germany has fallen slightly. This is according to a monthly ifo Institute survey. It found that in August, the proportion of employees who worked from home at least part of the time fell from 25.5 percent to 23.8 percent. “As the number of vaccinated people increases, more and more employees are returning to the office. However, the drop in people working from home in August is less pronounced than in previous months. This indicates that the proportion is likely to stabilize at a level higher than before the pandemic,” says Oliver Falck, Director of the ifo Center for Industrial Organization and New Technologies.
The decline was noticeable in all economic sectors. Among service providers, the proportion fell from 35.4 to 33.4 percent; in manufacturing, from 18.1 to 16.4 percent; in wholesale, from 17.2 to 15.8 percent; in retail, from 6.3 to 5.3 percent; and in construction, from 6.3 to 5.0 percent.
The drop was particularly steep in pharmaceutical production, from 35.8 to 15.7 percent. However, some sectors bucked this trend, with the proportion of employees working from home actually going up. In the chemical industry, it rose from 18.2 to 19.5 percent; in leather, wood, and straw manufacturing, from 5.8 to 8.5 percent; in postal and courier services, from 24.2 to 27.2 percent; and in programming and broadcasting, from 36.9 to 50.8 percent.
