Jun 27, 2022 - Economy & Business

Almost everyone works from home — if they can

Illustration of a person working at a desk in the middle of a island

Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios

American workers really, really want pandemic-era work flexibility to stick around, a new McKinsey survey reveals.

Why it matters: Offering remote or hybrid work is turning into table stakes for attracting high-skilled talent.

Some of the survey's most interesting findings include ...

  • 58% of U.S. workers — 92 million people — say they can work remotely at least part time. 35%, meanwhile, can work remotely all the time.
  • 87% of workers who can work remotely do so, at least one day a week.

Yes, but: Not everyone's getting — or taking advantage of — the opportunity to work from wherever.

  • Men (61%) are more likely to be offered remote work compared to women (52%). However, women given the chance to work remotely do so slightly more often (3.1 days per week, on average) than men (2.9 days).
  • Older workers who can work remotely tend to do so more often than their younger colleagues — those 55-64 work an average of 3.1 days a week remotely, compared to 2.5 for those 18-24.
  • A whopping 75% of people making $150,000 or more can work remotely, compared to just 47% of those making between $25,000-$49,999.

Where it stands: Many companies that have tried to force workers back to the office have had ... difficulties. Others, meanwhile, see flexible work as a competitive advantage.

  • Yelp is the latest big company to go fully remote. "We learned that ... our people could thrive and be just as, if not more, productive while remote," co-founder and CEO Jeremy Stoppelman wrote in a memo announcing the move.
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