Working from Home in European Countries Before and During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

We use data from the representative EU Labour Force Survey for 28 countries and document the levels of working from home in 2011–2022. This period is relevant as it includes the years of the COVID-19 pandemic. We show significant differences in working from home across countries, industries, and occupations. Working from home has increased in several sample countries and almost all industries and occupations in the 2011–2019 period and more significantly in the years affected by the pandemic. Although there is a general decline in working from home in 2022, the prevalence of working from home remains generally well above the pre-pandemic levels. We show that the rise in working from home is associated with lower employment losses during the pandemic years. We also compute a measure of working from home capacity for the sample countries using the observed working from home levels.