UK is European leader in work-from-home move

The UK’s shift to working from home has made the country an exception among most other advanced economies, according to an analysis by the Financial Times, as the size of its professional services sector and a more flexible labor market are likely to deter return to pre-pandemic levels of office occupancy.

Months after the latest Covid-related restrictions were lifted, the latest available data shows that the number of people working in offices is still almost a quarter below the levels of February 2020, before the coronavirus took hold in the UK.

“There has been a permanent shift in mindset about how work is organized among the formerly office-based workforce in the UK,” said Jane Parry, associate professor of work and employment at the University of Southampton and author of a recent study on employment practices. work after confinement.

Parry said nearly all respondents approved of some form of flexible working, with many saying that working from home was more efficient, mainly because it reduced the daily commute to the office.

Google’s latest mobility data for a Thursday (May 12) — the peak day of the week for office work — showed that the number of people commuting was still 23% below pre-pandemic levels. This remains largely unchanged from last September, pointing to what could be a new post-pandemic norm.

That’s more than double the levels in most other European countries using equivalent data, with Germany just 7% below pre-pandemic displacement numbers. Data from the US and Canada are more similar to the UK, but still suggest that more workers have returned to offices.

Nick Bloom, professor of economics at Stanford University, said the UK, along with the US, has seen a marked shift in the number of people using a hybrid working model, with working from home being “very rare” before the attack. of the coronavirus. “After the pandemic, it appears these employees will work, on average, two to three days a week at the office and two to three days a week at home,” he said.

A global survey of 33,000 people conducted in February by WFH Research, administered by several American universities, including Stanford, showed that the UK had the most days of paid work from home each week in Europe.

It also revealed that Britons believed that working from home had increased their efficiency, more than people in other European countries, and that the UK had the highest share of workers who said they would quit if forced to return to the workplace. in full time.

Jack Leslie, economist at the Resolution Foundation think tank, said a combination of factors contributed to the apparent success of hybrid or home-based work in the UK, including a large share of computer-based jobs. “The UK is a service-based economy, which means more jobs can be done remotely on a permanent basis,” he said.

About 80% of UK information and communication workers, as well as nearly two-thirds in professional and scientific services, work from home or use a hybrid model, according to the Office for National Statistics. This compares to an average of 28% across all industries.

Travel time and costs are also generally higher in the UK, an important factor at a time when families face the most severe squeeze on living standards in decades.

Christopher Pissarides, professor of economics at the London School of Economics, said another reason the UK is different is the more flexible and less regulated labor market compared to other European countries.

The discrepancy between the UK and some industrial economies, such as Germany and Italy, in terms of the number of people returning to offices, has remained constant in recent months.

Pissarides said he hoped the size of the UK service sector would mean it “must persist” unlike other advanced economies that have a higher percentage of manufacturing jobs.
Data from Freespace, which tracks office usage, largely tracking the biggest professional services firms, found that UK occupancy rates were around 30% in the first week of May, half the rate before the pandemic. .

Reluctance to return to the office is especially acute in London, which has a greater concentration of professional services than anywhere else in the UK. The latest data from Google shows that commutes to workplaces in the capital fell by more than 30% in early May compared to pre-pandemic levels.

Statistics from the Transport for London department suggest the problem is even more serious. The number of people passing through the city’s stations on the last Thursday of April was close to the highest levels since the start of the pandemic, but still 42% below pre-coronavirus levels.
“The cost of commuting in terms of time and money is generally higher in London, and some people may still be afraid to use public transport, which is the main form of commuting in London,” said Yael Selfin, economist at KPMG. .

According to Pissarides, the technological and organizational changes made by employers to allow their employees to work from home have helped bring about permanent change for many UK workers. “I think hybrid work is here to stay.”

Translated by Luiz Roberto M. Gonçalves