Remote Work Holds Steady, New BLS Data Shows

Despite return-to-office (RTO) mandates from major employers, new federal data suggests remote work has settled into a lasting feature of the U.S. workplace rather than a temporary pandemic-era trend.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ latest American Time Use Survey, 34.9% of full-time workers — approximately 32.5 million people — performed at least part of their job from home on an average day in 2025. That marks a modest increase from 33.4% in 2024 and leaves remote work participation more than 10 percentage points above pre-pandemic levels.

The findings indicate that while many organizations have pushed employees back to the office, those efforts have largely plateaued. The latest figures add to a growing body of evidence suggesting hybrid work has become a permanent feature of the labor market rather than an exception.

At the same time, the data does not necessarily point to a surge in fully remote jobs. Instead, it may reflect employers allowing greater flexibility in when employees work from home. In fact, the average number of hours employees spent working remotely continued to decline from its peak in 2021.

Resource: Future of Work

For HR leaders, the survey highlights significant differences in who has access to remote work, and why one-size-fits-all workplace policies may be difficult to sustain.

Educational attainment remains one of the strongest predictors of remote work eligibility. More than half (56.7%) of employees with advanced degrees worked from home for at least part of the day in 2025, while 51.4% of workers with bachelor’s degrees did the same. By comparison, only 19% of employees with a high school diploma reported working remotely.

Education and occupation strongly influence remote work access. Workers with higher education are more likely to hold knowledge-based jobs in fields such as finance, technology, consulting, and research that are well-suited to remote work. By contrast, roles requiring physical presence, including manufacturing, construction, transportation, and food service, offer few remote opportunities.

That disparity underscores the challenge of applying uniform RTO policies across diverse workforces. HR leaders may need to consider role-specific flexibility rather than broad mandates that treat all jobs the same.

The survey also revealed notable gender differences. Women were more likely than men to work remotely at least part of the time, with 38.3% reporting some remote work compared with 31.3% of men.

Women remain more likely than men to work remotely because they are disproportionately employed in professional and office-based roles that support hybrid and remote work. Higher college completion rates have also increased women’s presence in remote-work-friendly jobs, while flexibility remains especially important for balancing work and caregiving responsibilities.

Female labor force participation among workers with young children has declined since early 2024, suggesting that simply offering hybrid work may be insufficient without thoughtful scheduling, caregiving support, and manager practices that make flexibility meaningful.

“Hopefully, employers have finally arrived at the point where they face there’s no going back to the pre-COVID, traditional work model that was already disappearing before the pandemic hit,” said Cali Williams Yost, a nationally recognized expert on workplace flexibility and founder of the consultancy Flex+Strategy Group in New York City.

“However, the flexible work model that has emerged still needs to be optimized and intentionally designed in partnership with the workforce to be effective,” she said. “Gallup data shows that only 11% of employees report they’ve played a role in defining where and when they work best. That means 89% have not. That’s what’s next.”