Managers say working from home is here to stay

The Covid-19 pandemic led to a dramatic increase in remote work across the world. This column uses new firm-level data from the UK to study expectations about working from home. Managers forecast levels of remote work within their own firms in 2028 that are almost identical to the levels in 2023. But aggregate working from home could still increase as younger firms tend to make more use of remote working, and they are likely to grow more quickly in the future. Matching this survey data to detailed firm accounts data shows that firms with higher levels of working from home have higher productivity and lower wage growth.