Workers often shifted from full-time remote work to a hybrid model post-COVID-19, especially in cities
Social distancing measures and concerns about COVID-19 led to a sharp rise in remote work. Even as the situation improved, fewer people returned to working exclusively from the office. Instead, those in remote-compatible jobs often split their time between home and office, creating a new hybrid working model (Özgüzel, Luca and Wei, 2023).
Before the pandemic, European cities already had a higher share of remote workers than sparsely populated areas, largely due to occasional remote work (working from home less than half the time) (Figure 2.18). During the pandemic, remote work increased across all areas, especially in cities, driven by more regular remote work (working from home more than half the time). After the pandemic, the share of remote workers dropped from its peak due to a decline in regular remote work, a pattern also seen in the United States (Barrero, Bloom, and Davis, 2023). However, the number of occasional remote workers grew, signalling a shift towards hybrid work. In 2022, 29% of city workers worked from home, compared to 21% in towns and 18% in rural areas.
The uptake of remote work has been uneven across Europe and Türkiye, with some countries seeing much stronger adoption than others (Figure 2.20). For example, over 40% of workers in Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and Switzerland worked remotely occasionally or regularly, while less than 5% did so in Bulgaria, Romania or Türkiye (Figure 2.19, Panel A). In 2022, with a few exceptions, capital-city regions had the highest number of remote workers in their countries, with an average of 32% of employees working from home, compared to 18% in other regions. Similarly, in all countries, cities had the highest number of remote workers (Figure 2.19, Panel B).
Workers with a university or a higher degree are more likely to work remotely, both regularly and occasionally, compared to those with lower education levels. This disparity is especially pronounced in European cities, where approximately 46% of higher-educated workers engaged in remote work, compared to just 14% of lower-educated workers. The gap in remote work uptake between higher- and lower-educated workers is smaller, about 27 p.p., in towns and semi-dense or rural areas. This difference is largely due to a higher share of remote workers among the higher-educated in cities. In contrast, the share of remote workers among the lower-educated remains relatively consistent across different types of areas, though it is slightly higher in cities.
