Work-from-home levels in the U.S. have dropped to their lowest point since 2020.
According to WFH Research this is due the increasing RTO mandates.
Employees worked only 26.6% of their full paid days from home in May.
This is very low compared to the pandemic peak of around 60%, and 28.6% in May 2023.
About 1 in 10 workers commuted one more day each week this year compared to last year.
The study was conducted by researchers that included economists from Stanford and Chicago University.
Among full-time employees in the U.S., 13% were fully remote, 26% were working hybrid and 62% fully on-site.
However, working from home still dominates several white-collar industries.
The information and technology sector had the highest share (69%) of work-from-home employees. They also had the most remote workdays, 2.2 per week).
This field was followed by finance and insurance, in which 66% work from home.
These industries lean strongly toward remote work due to high-paying, computer-intensive jobs. They are often located in major cities, where long commutes make remote work appealing.
Employees in retail and hospitality had low work-from-home rates, ranging from 0.6 to 0.7 days per week. This is because those industries largely require physical presence to engage with consumers.
Of the nine major U.S. metro areas analyzed, Greater Los Angeles led the way in remote work.
It had a 34.4% rate for paid workdays, followed by Greater Houston (32%), the San Francisco Bay Area (32%), Washington D.C.-Baltimore area (30.7%) and New York metropolitan area (30.7%).
Finally, research found workers in their 50s and 60s went into the office more often than younger workers. 68% of workers aged 50-64 worked fully on-site, higher than those in their 40s (62%), 30s (59%), and 20s (57%).
Companies founded in 2020 have the highest share of WFH, with 36% of their workdays being remote due to their digital-first nature.
