The desire to work exclusively from home has increased among Eurofound e-survey respondents since the pandemic. Image: Cultura Creative/Adobe Stock.

Press release - 20 January 2025 09:00

Opportunities for remote work decline despite worker’s preferences, new survey finds

Despite expectations that remote work or hybrid work would become a long-term norm following the pandemic, findings from Eurofound’s 2024 e-survey indicate a decline in remote work since 2023. Both exclusively remote and hybrid work declined, with the percentage of respondents working entirely from the workplace increasing from 36% in 2023, to 41% in 2024.

Eurofound’s Quality of life in the EU in 2024 factsheet presents first findings of the Living and working in the EU survey, which was conducted online across Europe in spring 2024. The e-survey captures the situation of European respondents and their post-pandemic concerns, with this factsheet outlining the most recent data on the main challenges faced by Europeans, including a particular emphasis on the rising cost of living, health and mental health, access to healthcare services, work–life balance, and changes in telework opportunities.

The factsheet shows that the desire to work exclusively from home has increased among respondents since the pandemic, rising from 13% in 2020 to 24% in 2024, and the proportion who would like to work from home multiple times a week remaining over 50% - this is despite a marked decrease in the number of remote work positions advertised.

Men have slightly more access to hybrid work than women and, for the first time, the e-survey recorded more women than men working entirely at the workplace. Significant national differences in teleworking exist, with countries like Cyprus and Greece showing lower remote work rates, remote work is most common in the Netherlands and Ireland.

The e-survey also indicates that worrying about work is on the rise once more. In 2020, 30% of respondents reported always or frequently worrying about work outside of working hours. This figure declined to 24% in 2022 and 2023, but sharply rose again to 30% in 2024, matching the pandemic peak. The percentage of respondents who felt their work always or most of the time prevented them from spending time with family was at its lowest during the pandemic in 2020, at 19%, but has since risen to a peak of 30% in 2024.

Speaking about the working conditions findings from the survey, Eszter Sandor, Eurofound Senior Research Manager, said the survey indicates discord between worker and employer preferences, ‘The post-pandemic preference among workers in teleworkable jobs to have some sort of telework arrangement is clear, and this has only increased with the gradual return to workplaces. There are indications of dissatisfaction with the return to pre-pandemic workplace arrangements, particularly given the broad intensification of work that has taken place over the past five years.’

The next round of the survey will be carried out in April 2025.

More information: