1/ Today we look at new survey evidence on remote work preferences among U.S. workers, based on data from the Pew Research Center collected in February 2023. The chart highlights how workers with jobs that can be done remotely want to structure their work going forward.
2/ The most striking result is that a large share of workers prefer extensive remote work. About 38 percent say they would like to work from home all of the time, while another 28 percent prefer working from home most of the time. Combined, this suggests that more than two thirds of eligible workers favor remote work as their primary arrangement.
3/ A smaller but still significant group prefers a more balanced setup. Roughly 25 percent of respondents say they want to work from home some of the time, which points to continued demand for hybrid work models. This supports the idea that flexibility, rather than full office or full remote mandates, remains important for many workers.
4/ Very few workers express a preference for minimal or no remote work. Only about 5 percent say they would like to work from home rarely, while just 2 percent prefer never working from home. An additional 1 percent report being unsure. These small shares indicate that resistance to remote work is limited among workers who have the option.
5/ Overall, the data suggest that remote work is not a temporary trend driven only by the pandemic period. Instead, it reflects a durable shift in worker preferences that employers will need to consider. While not all jobs can be done remotely, for those that can, expectations around flexibility now appear firmly established.
Dataset
Data Sources
Pew Research Center (2023). How remote workers view working from home and the office. American Trends Panel, Wave 121.
https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2023/03/30/how-remote-workers-view-working-from-home-and-the-office/