International study: Employees worldwide like working from home

Workers around the world are putting in hours from home in numbers never seen before - and would actually like to do so a little more than they are, according to results of a new study out of Germany.

According to a survey published by Germany's Ifo Institute for Economic Research, employees worked from home an average of 1.5 days per week, across all industries and workers in the 27 countries surveyed.

Germany is just below the average, with 1.4 days worked from home per week as the country finds itself two and a half years into the coronavirus pandemic. In France it is 1.3 days, in the United States 1.6 and in Japan 1.1, according to Ifo.

"Never before has any event [the coronavirus pandemic] turned working life upside down so comprehensively in such a short time," commented Ifo researcher and co-author Mathias Dolls.

The German scientist worked with colleagues from five other research institutions in the U.S., Britain and Mexico, including Stanford and Princeton universities.

The results are average values, since in some industries working from home is not possible at all, Dolls said upon request.

The surveys were conducted by the British market research institute Respondi. The results are based - after adjustment - on a total of around 36,000 responses; the survey was conducted in two rounds in the summer of 2021 and in January/February of this year.