In today’s rapidly changing work landscape, remote work has emerged as a popular working model, offering employees increased flexibility.

In this article, we’ll cover the latest statistics on remote work prevalence, benefits, and challenges of remote work.

Click for a specific section:

General Remote Work Statistics and Trends
Remote Work Preferences
Remote Work Benefits and Challenges

General Remote Work Statistics and Trends

Around 1 in 4 employees in the US work remotely at least some hours (BLS)

As of August 2024, 22.8% of US employees worked remotely at least partially, which accounts for 35.13 million people.

Here’s a table with a share of US employees working remotely since January 2024:

Nearly half of US employees with an advanced degree work remotely (BLS)

45.2% of American employees did telework in August 2024. To put in perspective, only 9.6% of employees who are high school graduates with no college degree worked remotely in the same month.

There’s a clear connection between education levels and remote work adoption rates.

Here’s a detailed breakdown of remote work adoption among US employees by education level:

The largest share of remote employees falls within the age range of 35 to 44 years (BLS)

Those aged 35 to 44 are most likely to work remotely. Within this demographic, 26.2% work at least some hours remotely.

27% of employees currently work remotely or in hybrid mode (Survey of Business Uncertainty)

According to a survey of business executives at 595 firms in the US, senior management reports that 8.9% of their full-time employees work fully remotely, while another 18.1% are in hybrid mode.

The share of remote workers is expected to grow to 10.1% by 2028, suggesting that management expects remote work adoption to grow further.

Here’s a detailed breakdown of the share of full-time employees by work location:

Information, finance and insurance, professional and business services have the largest share of remote workers (Survey of Working Arrangements and Attitudes)

26% of full-time employees in tech, finance, and insurance work fully remotely, more than in any other industry.

Here’s a detailed breakdown of the share of working mode by industry in the US:

Around 10% of job postings in the US offer remote or hybrid work (WFH Map)

As of May 2024, 9.48% of new job postings in the US mentioned the possibility of remote or hybrid work in the job description.

Advertised remote or hybrid work significantly varies by city in the US. For instance, 21.99% of job postings in San Francisco, California mention remote or hybrid work, while in Miami, Florida that’s only a 3.23% share.

Remote Work Preferences

36% of US employees would prefer to work fully remote given the choice, more than any other work model (YouGov)

When asked about preferred work mode, 36% of survey respondents claim to prefer working from home every day, followed by hybrid mode (28%) and working from the office every day (27%).

64% of remote workers say they’re very likely to look for job opportunities with another employer provided no remote flexibility in the future (Gallup)

A significant 64% of remote-only employees claim they are very likely to pursue other job options should they be denied the option of remote work flexibility.

Employee engagement is highest among employees who work fully remotely (Gallup)

Recent research shows that exclusively remote employees tend to report higher employee engagement than those working on-site (37% feel engaged vs. 30%).

Here’s a detailed breakdown by working mode among US full-time employees:

Remote Work Benefits and Challenges

Over half of remote workers in the US claim working from home helps them with work-life balance and meeting deadlines (Pew Research Center)

71% of US teleworkers say working from home helps with balancing work and personal life.

Over half (56%) of those who work remotely at least occasionally claim that this work arrangement supports their ability to accomplish tasks and meet deadlines.

35% of remote workers say they’re “very engaged” in their job (Buffer)

The recent survey indicates that 58% of remote workers say they’re at least “somewhat engaged” toward their job, including 35% who claim they’re “very engaged”.

Another 30% of employees working from home say they’re at least “somewhat unengaged”.

Flexibility stands out as the most significant benefit of remote work (Buffer)

22% of remote workers consider the greatest benefit of remote work to be the flexibility in managing their time, while 19% value the ability to choose where to live, and 13% appreciate the option to select their work location.

21% of remote workers claim that their biggest struggle is that they stay at home too often (Buffer)

When it comes to the biggest struggle with remote work, 21% cite that they stay at home too often, while 15% say that’s loneliness, and 14% report working across time zones.

Remote workers report no commute and savings on gas and lunch costs among the top benefits of working from home (Global Survey of Working Arrangements and Attitudes)

Among surveyed workers in 34 countries who had remote work experience, 59.65% of respondents report “no commute” as a top benefit of working from home, followed by “savings on gas and lunch costs” (43.84%), “flexibility” (41.93%).

Here’s a complete list of the top benefits of working from home according to workers:

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