The share of American workers putting in at least part of their day from home grew again last year, defying corporate efforts to bring employees back to the office.
In 2025, a greater number of employees in the United States worked from home than in the previous year — a small but significant shift, suggesting that companies’ prolonged efforts to bring workers back to the office continue to meet resistance.
Last year, 34.9% — or 32.5 million — of full-time workers carried out at least part of their tasks at home on an average day, according to the latest American Time Use Survey, released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) this past Thursday (the 25th). The figure represents an increase from the 33.4% recorded in 2024.
The BLS data reinforce growing evidence that the paradigm shift of the pandemic era is here to stay: the share of workers spending at least part of their workday at home remains more than 10 percentage points above 2019 levels.
Even so, the rise in the proportion of people spending at least part of the day working from home does not necessarily mean there are more jobs or remote workers. It may simply reflect greater flexibility on the part of employers regarding when employees need to be present in the office. In fact, the average number of hours per day devoted to remote work has continued to decline from its 2021 peak, while the total length of the workday has changed little.