A veritable revolution is happening in global job markets in 2020. Large centralized offices seem to have turned into sinking ships, with more and more people jumping overboard.

Fascinating Remote Work Stats

• 55% of businesses globally offer some capacity for remote work
• 18% of the workforce telecommute on a full-time basis
• 77% of telecommuters report being more productive
• 37% of remote workers say the best way to boost productivity is to take regular breaks
• 30% of telecommuters save upward of $5,000 a year
• $11,000 is how much companies can save annually for each employee that works remotely half-time
• People who work remotely earn $4,000 more per year on average
• 99% of remote workers want to continue telecommuting in the future

As the pandemic spread, forcing the world to go into lockdown, business organizations were left with no other option than to switch to online working. As a result, there has been a drastic increase in the number of remote workers lately and it became the new norm after that.

Here are some interesting remote work statistics to help you gain an insight into remote work trends of 2020.

Working from Home Stats 2020 Before and After the Spread of COVID-19

1. 4.7 million people were already working remotely from home before the COVID-19 pandemic. (Flexjobs)
2. 88% of the organizations, worldwide, made it mandatory or encouraged their employees to work from home after COVID-19 was declared a pandemic. (Gartner)

Remote Workers Statistics

1. 44% of companies globally don’t allow remote work (Owl Labs)
2. 52% of global employees work remotely once a week, and 68% do so at least once per month (Owl Labs)
3. 2.9% of the total U.S. workforce work remotely at least half of the time
4. 18% of people work remotely full-time (Owl Labs)
5. In the U.S remote work has risen by 173% between 2005 and 2018 (Global Workplace Analytics)

Working From Home Productivity Statistics

1. 77% of remote employees say they’re more productive when working from home (CoSo Cloud)
2. 37% of remote workers stay productive by taking breaks (Airtasker)

Remote Work Income Statistics

1. 30% of remote workers are saving as much as $5,240 per year (CoSo Cloud)
2. Businesses would save an average of $11,000 annually per half-time telecommuter (Global Workplace Analytics)
3. The average annual income for most telecommuters is $4,000 higher than that of non-telecommuters (Flexjobs)
4. 25% of employees would take a 10% pay cut to work remotely (Owl Labs)

Future of Remote Work Post-COVID

1. As of April 2020, 67 percent of organizations reported an increase in spending on web conferencing software. (Statista)
2. 25% of respondent companies will move 10% of their employees to permanent remote positions post-COVID 19 (Statista)
3. Amazingly 99% of remote workers would like to continue doing so to some extent (Buffer)
4. An astounding 42% of employees with a remote work option plan to work remotely more often in the next five years (Owl Labs)
5. 69% of young managers allow their team members to work remotely (Upwork)
6. 25% to 30% of the workforce will be working remotely from home by the end of 2021 (Global Workplace Analytics)
7. 74% of companies plan to shift some of their employees to remote working permanently. (Gartner)

Working from home has been on an upward trend for close on to two decades, with no potential endpoint in sight.

However, that doesn’t mean that it doesn’t come with its fair share of challenges. This is especially true for specific industries, for example, transport. But it’s also true that it has great potential in other areas.