The rise of working from home

A POPULAR CLICHé of 2020 was that covid-19 accelerated pre-existing trends. Yet that is a poor description of the massive rupture to office work. Before the pandemic Americans spent 5% of their working time at home. By spring 2020 the figure was 60%. The shift has gone better than expected. People are working longer hours, but they report higher levels of happiness and productivity. As lockdowns lift, working from home is likely to stay.

A growing body of research points to what post-pandemic working patterns may look like. In one paper José Maria Barrero, Nick Bloom and Steven Davis, three economists, survey thousands of Americans and conclude that, after the pandemic, the average employee would like to work from home nearly half the time. Employers are less keen, but their expectation that a fifth of working time will be spent at home (one day a week) is a big change from the previous norm. It also presents a huge opportunity for office-based workers.