BERLIN – The proportion of German people working from home fell only slightly in April, according to a survey published on Monday, despite the country lifting remote-working requirements brought into force to combat the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Ifo economic institute said its survey of 9,000 companies showed 24.9% of German employees worked from home at least part of the time in April, compared with 27.6% the previous month.
“This means the number of people working from home remains at a high level following the abolition of the remote-working obligation on March 20,” said Jean-Victor Alipour, an Ifo expert on working from home.
“Evidently, many companies have permanently adapted to more flexible working arrangements,” he added.
Remote-working options are still most widespread in the service sector, where 35.3% worked from home in April, Ifo said.
The decrease was strong in Germany’s automotive industry, falling to 17.8% in April from 28.4%, it said. However, the figure fell only slightly for manufacturing overall, to 16.3% from 18.6%.
(Reporting by Rachel More; Editing by Bradley Perrett)