Coronavirus Once Again Driving Work from Home in Germany
Rising coronavirus numbers have led more workers back to their home office in Germany. In December, 27.9 of employees worked at least partially from home, up from 23.8 percent in August. The high-water mark of 31.7 percent occurred in March. This is the finding of an ifo Institute survey. The recent increase was across all industries. Among service providers, the proportion rose from 33.4 to 38.2 percent; in wholesale, from 15.8 to 20.8 percent; in manufacturing, from 16.4 to 19.7 percent; in retail, from 5.3 to 6.6 percent; and in construction, from 5.0 to 8.5 percent.
“Apparently, not all companies are complying with the remote-working obligation, which was reintroduced at the end of November,” says Jean-Victor Alipour, an ifo Institute expert on working from home. “While the rate has gone back up, it is still a good 4 percentage points below its March 2021 peak. Only in programming and broadcasting and in telecommunications has the rate surpassed its spring peak, with 63 percent and 65 percent of employees, respectively, doing their jobs from home.” The ifo Institute estimates that across all industries, 56 percent of employees could work from home at least some of the time.
