204 Remote Work Statistics

42% of remote workers plan to work remotely more frequently than they currently do in the next 5 years, and that more than half of on-site workers want to start working remotely.

43% of US employers said they plan to allow their employees to have more remote working opportunities in the next year. Only 9% said they plan to offer less.

Tennessee has 16 state government agencies that employ 6,000 people who telework at least part time. Their program, which is 3 years old, saves employees an estimated $1,800/month in gas costs, and resulted in dropped sick leave by 37%.

After a successful remote work pilot program including 136 employees across 4 state agencies resulted in improved productivity and decreased emissions, the state of Utah is now expanding telecommuting to an additional 2,500 government workers. That's 30% of eligible state employees over the next 18 months.

By 2025, an estimated 70% of the workforce will work remotely at least five days in a month.

Since 2016, the number of job posts on LinkedIn that mention work flexibility rose by over 78%.

The Vermont's Agency of Commerce and Community Development is incentivizing remote workers to move to the state with a $10,000 payment over the course of 2 years for people who become full-time residents of Vermont, work from home or a coworking space in Vermont, and meet the program criteria.

In 2018, 16% of roles posted on We Work Remotely belonged to fully remote companies. In 2014, only 2% of roles posted were from fully remote companies with no headquarters.

In 2018 We Work Remotely had 2388 jobs posted, up from 317 in 2013.

Managers expect there to be more remote workers on their teams. Five times more hiring managers expect more of their team to work remotely in the next 10 years, than those who expect fewer to work remotely in the next 10 years.

There has been a 52% increase in telecommute-friendly jobs posted in Flexjob's database over the last two years.

The percent of employees who worked remotely 100% of the time was 20%, up from 15% in 2012.

2.9% of the total U.S. workforce, or 3.9 million U.S. employees, work from home at least half of the time. That's a 115% increase since 2005, when there were 1.8 million U.S. employees working from home at least half the time.

Between 2013 and 2017 the percentage of LinkedIn members who said that flexible work arrangements are very important when considering a job increased from 25% to 31%.

63% of people believe that the eight-hour workday will become obsolete.

Two-thirds of people believe that future career paths will be determined not by companies, but by the workers themselves.

A nationally representative survey of U.S. workers conducted by PWC found that 68% of those surveyed believe that, within the next five years, work will be done remotely instead of in a traditional office.

In 2016, 31% of remote workers reported working outside of the office 80% of more of the time, up from 24% in 2012.

In the US, remote workers work remotely full-time 66% more often than the global average.

49% of US employers allow employees to set their own hours.

43% of US employers already offer their employees remote work opportunities.

The smaller the company, the higher the percentage of remote workers.

When asked "Does anyone on your team work remotely 100% of the time?" 69% of respondents said yes.

42% of people who are 100% remote said they have been working remotely for more than 5 years. 28% said they have been working remotely for 3 to 5 years. 19% said they have been working remotely for 1 to 2 years. And 11% said they had been working remotely for less than a year.

70% of fully remote workers have worked remotely for 3 or more years, based on FYI's The Remote Work Report.

63% of US companies now have remote workers.

52% of 1,153 employees who were polled in a 2017 VitalSmarts Survey said they work from their home office at least some of the time.

43% of employees work remotely at least some of the time.

The number one challenge for fully remote workers is communication (27%). Social opportunities is the second-biggest challenge (16%), loneliness and isolation the third (13%). Other challenges fully remote workers have include setting boundaries, organic interaction, visibility and time zones.

9% of small business staff said a benefit of remote work is that they work shorter hours than they are supposed to.

39% of small business staff said a downside of working remotely is that they work longer hours than they should when they work outside of the office.

For small business staff who said they work best when they’re at home, TV and chores were the biggest distractions (27%).

The second-biggest downside of working remotely is procrastination (41% of small business staff).

The biggest downside of working remotely is distractions, according to a the Avast Mobile Workforce Report. 46% of small business staff said that ‘getting distracted’ is the biggest downside of mobile working.

Loneliness and collaborating/communicating were tied for the top challenge remote workers face. 21% of remote workers named “loneliness” as their biggest struggle when working remotely, and 21% said collaborating/communicating was their biggest struggle.

20% of full-time employees surveyed strongly or somewhat disagreed that their company provided them with tools to make using their flexible work arrangements easy and productive.

37% of people who work at companies that allow remote work believe that working remotely can result in less visibility and less access to leadership.

When members of a team who work remotely at least part of the time encountered common workplace challenges, 84% said that the concern dragged on for a few days or more, while 47% said they let it drag on for weeks or more.

Employees who work remotely at least part of the time report that workplace politics are a bigger challenge, and that when conflicts arise, they have a harder time resolving them.

44% of remote workers said that they had difficulty unwinding after a day at work. 38% of those who worked in an office said the same.

Call center workers from Ctrip who worked from home experienced a fall in their promotion rate conditional on performance.

Departments with the greatest remote work participation include facilities/operations/IT (18%), customer support/service/success (14%), and sales (13%), and administrative (11%).

The industries with the most remote workers include healthcare (15%), technology/internet (10%), financial services (9%), education (8%) and manufacturing (7%).

There are 18% more executives working remotely than there are working on-site.

CEOs, engineering and marketing are the most likely to work remotely. Sales, product and design are the least likely.

Men across the globe are 8% more likely than women to work remotely.

VP-level roles are the most likely to be fully remote when compared to other types of roles.

Individual contributors are more likely (20%) to work remotely full time.

Small companies are twice as likely to hire remote employees.

After realizing its female employees were leaving at a rate that was 10-15% higher than their male counterparts, Ernst and Young (EY) began aggressively promoting their “flexibility efforts” in the mid-90s. Twenty-seven years later, EY has said that thanks to formal flexible work, part-time and reduced schedules, and day-to-day flexibility, EY now retains men and women at the same rate. They’ve also reached their goal of promoting more female partners, with women making up about 30% of each new partner class every year.

The average yearly income for most remote workers is $4,000 more than those who work in an office.

The average remote worker is 46 years or older, holds a bachelor’s degree or higher, and earns a higher median salary than workers who are based in offices.

Remote.co researched the CEOs and founders of 128 mostly or completely remote companies. 28% of mostly or completely remote companies have female CEOs, founders, or presidents, and 19% have female CEOs. 29% of fully remote companies had either female CEOs, founders, or presidents, and 13% had female CEOs. That's much higher than S&P 500 companies, where 5.2% of CEOs were women as of 2017, and Fortune 500 companies, where 6.4% are women.

Roughly the same percent of women and men work remotely. 52% of work-at-home employees are female.

23% of remote workers fear that working remotely will impact their career progression.

Most remote workers are not worried that remote work will impact their career progression. 68% of remote workers surveyed said they aren't worried that working remotely will impact their career progression.

Remote workers are happier at work than non-remote workers. While 71% of remote workers said that they are happy in their job, only 55% of on-site workers said that they are happy in their job.

When asked "would you like to work remotely, at least some of the time, for the rest of your career?" 99% said they would.

The top 3 reasons people would recommend working remotely to a friend include: Freedom and flexibility, no commute, and increased productivity.

91% of remote workers said working remotely is a good fit for them.

96% of remote workers would recommend working remotely to a friend.

54% of employees who are allowed to work remotely say that it improves morale.

More than half (57%) of employees who are allowed to work from home say working from home reduces stress.

75% of employees who are allowed to work from home say that doing so has improved their work-life balance.

When asked "Flexible work arrangements would or do allow me to be more productive" 47% of survey respondents said they strongly agree, 31% said they strongly agree, 18% were neutral, 2% somewhat disagreed and 2% strongly disagreed.

73% of employees surveyed said that flexible work arrangements increased their satisfaction at work.

People who work remotely at least once a month are 24% more likely to feel productive and happy in their roles, versus those who don't or can't work remotely.

Dice.com asked in an anonymous online survey, “What perks do you want in a job offer?” Remote work was tied with health benefits as the most popular answer (28%).

90% of remote workers surveyed by Buffer plan on working remotely for the rest of their careers.

12% of small business staff would choose not having to work in an office over a pay raise of 25% or more. Only 8% said they would accept a pay raise of 1-5% to give up remote working and work in an office.

33% of small business staff who are able to work remotely said they have better work/life balance.

34% of small business staff said that being able to work remotely meant they are happier.

Over half of small business staff (52%) said they would prefer to take a pay cut rather than be restricted to working in an office.

The top reasons people are interested in flexible work are: work-life balance (69%), money/cost savings (51%), time savings (50%), and stress (40%).

When asked which type of flexibility they’re most interested, 81% of survey respondents said they were interested in Telecommuting 100% of the time.

Of those who work remotely, 25% do it for financial reasons.

39% of people who work remotely do it for family.

42% of remote employees work remotely for focus.

47% of remote employees work remotely due to the commute.

51% of remote employees work remotely to improve their work/life balance.

Employees who reported spending 60% to 80% out of the office working had the highest rates of engagement at work.

Flexible work policies at companies with happy staff and those with unhappy staff were compared in the Staples Advantage Workplace Index study. At companies with unhappy staff, only 17% of those companies offered staff flexible timing and telecommuting, and 48% offered neither flexible timing nor telecommuting.

Flexible work policies at companies with happy staff and those with unhappy staff were compared in the Staples Advantage Workplace Index study. Of the companies with happy staff, 27% offered both flexible timing and telecommuting, and 28% offered neither flexible timing nor telecommuting.

Remote workers say they work more than 40 hours per week 43% more than on-site workers do. However, on-site workers are also working longer weeks because it's required of them, while more remote workers are doing so because they enjoy what they do.

The state of Utah ran a remote work pilot program for 136 employees across four state agencies. The productivity of those employees increased by 23% during the pilot program.

Only 3% of companies with remote work policies believe that their workers are less productive when they work at home.

22% of companies with remote work policies believe remote workers are equally as productive as those who work in an office.

Employers of companies with remote policies believe that remote makes workers more productive. 72% of companies with remote work policies believe that remote work makes workers more productive.

Only 4% of people who work remotely believe that they are less productive when working at home.

38% of people who work remotely believe that they are equally productive working from home as in the office.

57% of people who work remotely reported thinking they are more productive when they work from home.

Working remotely means less stress and anxiety that affects productivity. Stress and anxiety affecting the productivity of small business staff was 35% in the office, and only 26% for those working outside of the office.

6% of small business staff said they are most productive when working at a hot-desk in the office.

One in five small business staff (21%) state that they are most productive when working in public spaces like a cafe or library.

38% of small business staff said they are most productive when working from home. That's more than said they are most productive when working in the office (35%).

73% of people who work from home said they put more effort than was required into their job. 68.5% of those who work from the office said the same.

24% of in-office workers said that they "often have to work extra time, over and above the formal hours of my job, to get through the work or to help out". 39% of at-home remote workers said the same.

When asked “Where do you go when you really need to get something done for work?” 7% of people said they would choose "The office during regular office hours, because it’s where I’m most productive."

When asked “Where do you go when you really need to get something done for work?” 25% said "The office during regular office hours, because it’s not an option to leave."

When asked “Where do you go when you really need to get something done for work?” 52% of people said they go to their home or home office.

People believe they would be more productive working remotely due to fewer distractions than the office (76%) and fewer interruptions from colleagues (76%).

66% of professionals said their productivity improves when they are not working in an office.

Call center workers from Ctrip who worked from home reported improved work satisfaction and their attrition rate halved.

Ctrip, a 16,000-employee NASDAQ-listed Chinese travel agency, allowed its call center employees to volunteer to work from home, and then randomly assigned those employees to work from home or from the office for nine months. Those who worked from home saw a 13% performance increase. 9% of that performance increase was from working more minutes per shift, because they had fewer breaks and fewer sick days. The remaining 4% performance increase was from more calls per minute. This was attributed to a more convenient, quieter working environment.

The CoSo Cloud Remote Worker Survey found that of the 39% who said they work remotely at least a few times per month, 77% reported higher productivity while working outside of the office. 30% said they accomplished more in less time, and 24% said they accomplished more in the same time.

A study of a 2012 work-from-anywhere program among patent examiners at the U.S. Patent & Trade Office (USPTO) showed that examiners’ work output increased by 4.4% after they transitioned to work from home. That 4.4% productivity increase was found to represent up to $1.3 billion of annual value added to the U.S. economy.

Best Buy reported in 2006 that productivity had, on average, gone up by 35% in departments that shifted to working from wherever they wanted, whenever they wanted.

Remote workers are 13% more likely than on-site workers to say that they will stay in their current job for the next 5 years.

54% of US companies surveyed said they offer their employees remote work to increase employee retention.

Nearly a third of remote workers (30%) whose companies had remote policies said they would consider looking for another job if their companies took away the remote work policy.

Of the 52% of employees who wish their current employers allowed remote work, 37% have considered looking for a job that does, and 14% are actively looking.

52% of respondents who work for companies that don't have a remote-work policy feel frustrated and wish they could work from home.

When asked "Are you likely to leave your current employer in the next 12 months because they don't offer certain flexible work arrangements?" 21% of respondents strongly agreed, 15% somewhat agreed, 19% were neutral, 17% somewhat disagreed and 28% strongly disagreed.

Flexible work arrangements are a major consideration for 77% of employees when evaluating future job opportunities.

Companies that allow remote work experience 25% less employee turnover than companies that do not allow remote work.

62% of those surveyed as part of FlexJobs' 6th Annual Super Survey have left or considered leaving a job because it did not have work flexibility.

Companies that support remote work benefit from a 25% lower employee turnover rate than those that don't support remote work.

54% of office workers said they would leave their job for a job that offers flexible work time (the choice over when they worked).

37% of people would switch to a job that gave them the ability to work off-site at least part of the time.

53% of employees surveyed as part of The State of Flexible Work Arrangements say that there’s no official flexible work policy in place at their company.

Fewer companies don't allow remote work in the United States than globally, with only 15% of U.S. companies not allowing remote work.

Globally, 44% of companies don’t allow remote work based on Owl Labs' Global State of Remote Work.

Small companies with five to 20 employees are the least likely to offer remote work options at 42%.

Remote work policies are most common at midsize companies with 201 to 500 employees, two-thirds of which (67%) said they had remote-work policies.

55% of the employers surveyed by Indeed as part of their Remote Work Survey said they offer their employees a remote work policy.

Dell’s flexible program has saved it an average of $12 million annually since 2014 due to reduced office space requirements.

Nearly 60% of Dell employees work flexibly. The Net Promoter Scores of these employees who work remotely are 20% higher than those who don't work remotely.

50% of employers who offer their employees remote work say that remote work has reduced absenteeism, and 50% said it has saved them operational costs (50%).

Over half (57%) of employers who offer their employees remote work say that remote work has improved morale and also reduced employee turnover (52%).

47% of Aetna's employees use flexible workspaces. That let Aetna get rid of 2.7 million square feet of office space, a savings of about $78 million annually.

14,500 of Aetna's 35,000 employees don't have a desk at Aetna and 2,000 Aetna employees work from home a few days a week.

As companies get larger, the growth difference between remote teams and non-remote teams diminishes. Companies who were remote-first and are doing $10M to $75M in Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR) had 10 to 15% percent slower growth than co-located-first teams. At $75M or over, the difference between remote-first and non-remote-first growth disappears.

Remote companies are growing at a slower rate in their early stages than companies where everyone is co-located. Remote-first teams with $1 to $10M Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR) have growth rates that are roughly 20 to 30% lower than their co-located-first counterparts.

Millennial managers believe that in the next 3 years, 2 out of 5 full time employees will be working remotely.

69% of millennial managers allow members of their team to work remotely.

Millennials expect to stay at jobs with more flexibility for longer. 17% of millennials said they expect to stay for more than 5 years at organizations with less flexibility, while 55% of millennials expect to stay at organizations where there is more flexibility.

50% of millennials consider flexibility of location where they work and hours to be very important when choosing whether or not to work for an organization.

47% of millennials said they would change jobs to have a flexible working location where they could choose to work off-site full time. Only 31% of Gen Xers and Baby Boomers said the same, a 16 percentage point difference.

Millennials aren't engaged at work. 71% of millennials are not engaged or are actively disengaged at work.

Millennials are on the hunt for new positions. 60% of millennials say they are open to a different job opportunity according to Gallup. That's 15 percentage points higher than the percentage of non-millennial workers who reported the same.

Millennial turnover costs the U.S. economy $30.5 billion annually, according to estimates by Gallup.

Millennials are more likely to change jobs than non-millennials. 21% of millennials said they've changed jobs within the past year. That's more than three times the number of non-millennials who reported the same.

68% of job seekers who are millennials said an option to work remotely would greatly increase their interest in specific employers, according to a survey by AfterCollege.

In August 2019, 31% of companies younger than 2 years old that were posting jobs on AngelList had at least one open remote role, compared to 26% of companies older than 2 years.

7600 startups were hiring remote roles on AngelList live in August 2019. More than 1500 of these companies are mostly or fully remote companies.

29% of all the startups with roles posted on AngelList live in August 2019 were hiring remote roles.

Managers favor skills over being in the office together. Two times as many hiring managers cite employees having the right skills as being more important than working in the same location as the rest of the team.

The salary breakdown of remote workers surveyed was 74% earning less than $100k per year, and 26% earning more than $100k per year. In comparison, the on-site worker's salary breakdown was 92% earning less than $100,000 per year, 8% earn over $100k per year.

Remote workers are more likely to earn over $100k/year than on-site workers.

34% of U.S. workers would accept cut in pay of up to 5% in order to work remotely. 39% of remote workers surveyed would accept the 5% pay cut, and 25% of on-site workers would accept the pay cut.

Based on a survey of 500 people, 40% of employees would consider accepting a pay cut for the option to work remotely.

When asked "How much do you make per year?" 28% of remote workers said they make less than $25,000 USD per year. 18% said they make $25,001 – $50,000, and 19% said they make $50,001 – $75,000. 13% said they make over $125,000.

The biggest challenges for remote workers during hybrid meetings are interruptions/being talked over (67%) and IT issues during meetings (59%).

The number one challenge with remote meetings is connection and audio (31%). Staying engaged (11%) and scheduling (11%) were the next-largest challenges, followed by collaboration.

When asked "Which of the following video/audio chat tools do you use in remote meeting?" 69% said Zoom. 41% said Google Hangouts. 22% said other. 22% said Skype for Business. And 10% said WebEx.

88% of people who have remote meetings have them with their team. 59% have them with other teams at their company. 55% have them with customers, and 36% have them with prospects.

When asked "Approximately how many remote meetings did you have in the last 7 days?" 53% said more than 5. 20% said 4 to 5 meetings. 21% said 2 to 3. And 6% said 1 meeting.

91% of people who work remotely or from an office have had a remote meeting in the last 7 days.

Brainstorms are the most challenging meetings to follow and participate in when working remotely.

Remote work gives people the opportunity to travel more. When asked "How often do you travel and work outside your home city (including work retreats and conferences)" 44% of remote workers said they travel while working between one week and one month per year. 25% said they work/travel more than one month of the year. Only 7% said that they never traveled and worked at the same time.

Remote workers primarily work from home. When asked where they primarily work from, 78% of remote workers said they use their home as their primary place of work. 9% said they use the office as their primary place of work, coworking spaces came in at 7%, and cafes at 5%.

The total annual environmental impact for the 3.9 million remote workers in the US who work from home at least half-time is: Car miles not traveled: 7.8 billion miles; Car trips avoided: 530 million trips; Tons of greenhouse gases (GHG) avoided (EPA method): 3 million tons; Reduced traffic accident costs: $498 million costs; Oil savings ($50/barrel): $980 million savings; Total air quality savings (lbs. per year): 83 million savings

People who work from home right now in the US avoid emitting 3.6 million tons of commuting-related greenhouse gasses annually. To get the same result, 91 million trees would need to be planted.

In 2017 direct greenhouse gas emissions from businesses and homes accounted for 11.6% of total U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Transportation (including to and from work) is the biggest source of greenhouse gas emissions in the United States.

Utah's remote work pilot program with 136 employees who worked from home at least 3 days a week saved 273 pounds of vehicle emissions.

Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker has proposed a tax credit for employers who let employees telecommute. Employers would get a $2,000 tax credit for each employee who works remotely rather than commuting to the office.

Remote working reduces oil consumption by 640 million barrels.

Remote working decreases greenhouse gas emissions by 54 million tons.

Working remotely mitigates climate change annually. It reduces gas consumption by over $20 million.

Xerox's remote workers drove 92 million fewer miles. That saved 4.6 million gallons of gas and reduced carbon dioxide emissions by almost 41,000 metric tons.

The dominant players in the flexible office market in the US are WeWork, Spaces, Knotel.

Flexible office space like co-working spaces accounts for almost 71 million square feet in the US.

By 2030, flexible office space like co-working spaces could account for 13% - or 600 million square feet - of total US office supply.

Flexible office space has increased by 600% in the US for an average annual growth rate of 26% since 2010.

Flexible office supply in the US grew by 34% for the year ending Q2 2019.

The top 10 most penetrated flexible office markets in the US are: San Francisco, Manhattan, Miami, Los Angeles, Austin, Seattle, Denver, Washington D.C., St. Louis, and Charlotte.

6% of the office space in London and Shanghai is flexible office space.

San Francisco (4% of total office inventory) and Manhattan (3.6%) are the two most penetrated and high growth flexible office space markets in the US.

In 2010, flexible office space accounted for under 0.3% of the total US office inventory.

In 2018, flexible office space accounted for under 1.6% of the total US office inventory.

Flexible office space accounts for under 2% of the total US office inventory.

Coworking spaces make people happier. In a survey of members of coworking spaces, 89% of respondents said that they were happier since joining a coworking space.

83% of respondents to a survey of coworking space members reported that they are less lonely since they joined a coworking space

In a survey of coworking space members, 79% said coworking has expanded their social networks.

In a survey of coworking space members, 54% said that they socialize with other coworking space members after work and on weekends.

In a survey of coworking space members, 87% of respondents said that they meet other coworking space members for social reasons.

50% of employees who are allowed to work from home said working from home reduces sick days.

Of those employees who are allowed to work from home, 56% said it reduces absence from work.

46% of people think flexible work would improve their sex life.

50% of people believe that flexible work would give them more time for dates.

People believe flexible work would benefit their romantic relationships. 51% said it would benefit their romantic relationship.

People believe flexible work would benefit their romantic relationships. 83% thought it would help them be more attentive to their significant other.

89% of people think a flexible job would decrease their stress.

90% of people think a flexible job would help them take better care of themselves.

When it comes to personal health and non-romantic relationships, 94% of survey respondents thought flexible work would have a positive impact on their personal life.

33% of commuters say they snacked more because of their commute to work.

Commuters feel they consume an additional 767 calories each week from food and drink outside regular meals that's part of their commute to work.

41% of people say they do less physical activity as a result of their commute to work.