More U.S. employees worked from home in 2025 than in the previous year, signaling that employer efforts to bring workers back into the office may be losing traction.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ American Time Use Survey, 34.9% of full-time workers—about 32.5 million people—worked from home at least part of the day on an average day in 2025. That is up from 33.4% in 2024.
The increase is small, but it continues a post-pandemic pattern in which hybrid and remote work remain significantly more common than before 2020, according to Bloomberg.
Still Well Above Pre-Pandemic Levels
Even with pressure from executives across industries to increase office attendance, the share of workers doing at least some work from home remains more than 10 percentage points higher than in 2019.
The data adds to evidence that pandemic-era work habits have largely stabilized rather than reversed.
The rise in hybrid work does not necessarily mean people are working more hours from home. The average time spent on remote work has continued to decline from its 2021 peak, even as overall working hours have stayed relatively steady.
This suggests employers may be allowing more flexibility in where work is done, rather than fully shifting jobs to remote arrangements.
Education Still Influences Remote Work Access
Remote work remains far more common among higher-educated workers. In 2025, 56.7% of employees with advanced degrees worked from home at least part of the day, compared with 19% of workers whose highest education level was a high school diploma.
The pattern points to continued uneven access to flexible work depending on occupation and skill level.
