The administrative capital of Germany's Home Office is located in North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW).
Following the conclusion of the COVID-19 epidemic, there's been a substantial surge in job postings that allow for remote work. The proportion of such job ads has nearly quadrupled in the past half-decade.
Before the pandemic, home offices weren't much of a thing in Germany. In 2019, only 3.7% of all job listings online mentioned the possibility of working from home. By 2022, this figure shot up to 16.8%. Even post-pandemic, the demand for "remote work" keeps growing, hitting 17.6% of the scrutinized online job listings. The Bertelsmann Foundation, which studied 55 million online job listings, reported this. "People who thought everyone would return to the office after COVID have to face up to the fact: home offices have gained ground in numerous industries," says Gunvald Herdin, labor market expert at the Bertelsmann Foundation.
There's a noticeable divide between urban and rural areas. Fewer businesses have set up shop in sparsely populated areas offering remote work opportunities. In major cities, the rate is 26.1%. The city leading the pack for home offices is Düsseldorf, the North Rhine-Westphalia state capital (34.1% in 2023), followed closely by Frankfurt (33.6%) and Stuttgart (32.9%).
Very few businesses offer remote work opportunities in thinly populated regions (quote: 9%). "Fewer and fewer people need to relocate to urban areas for work. This is an opportunity for rural areas to retain or attract people in the region, but the digital infrastructure must be in place," says Herdin.
Home offices are almost a given in IT job listings. Among the ten professions with the highest home office rate, seven are from the field of software and IT. At the other end of the scale are craft professions, from the meat processing industry (0.2%), food production (0.3%), and metal construction (0.4%). For them, on-site work is pretty much the only option. The same goes for professions in the elderly care sector (0.5%).
The more complicated the task, the more likely home office is on the table. "The scissors are coming apart," says Herdin. For highly complex tasks that require a degree or master's degree, the study found that the offering for home office increased particularly strongly from 6.6% in 2019 to nearly 32% of all jobs in 2023. The growth is much more modest for skilled workers (from 1.7% to 8.1%). However, the offering continues to increase steadily in this group as well. This looks different for helpers and training positions. Here, the home office offering increased to a very modest 3.7% between 2019 and 2022 - and in 2023 it even decreased to 3.1%.
Read also:
The Bertelsmann study on 55 million online job listings revealed that remote work opportunities have significantly increased, with home offices becoming more common in various industries. Despite this, only 9% of businesses in thinly populated regions offer remote work.
The shift towards remote work has impacted the labor market, with home offices becoming increasingly prevalent in IT job listings. Among the ten professions with the highest home office rate, seven are from the field of software and IT. On the other hand, professions like meat processing, food production, and metal construction have minimal remote work options, as on-site work is essential.
.){kind=link}