Published on
While policymakers and experts continue to debate the merits and drawbacks of working from home, a recent UK parliament report has suggested that remote options could help boost employment.
As well as helping to retain staff, researchers noted that flexible arrangements may bring people back into the workforce who might not otherwise be able to work.
The select committee’s report, titled “Is working from home working?”, drew on evidence from a wide range of experts to examine the impact of different work set-ups on individuals, productivity, businesses, and workplace relations.
The report was published days after figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) showed that UK unemployment had risen to 5% in the three months to September.
As the job market weakens, UK working-pattern data indicates that parents, carers, and people with disabilities could particularly benefit from more flexible conditions.
“I gave up my job of 14 years because childcare was too expensive,” said one respondent in a survey cited by the report.
Authors of the publication also cited research from Italy, which found that flexible arrangements have opened up new opportunities for parents and carers by allowing them to balance domestic and professional responsibilities more effectively.
Moreover, the report pointed out that the potential benefits for disabled staff align closely with the government’s stated priorities on disability employment.
How could remote work tackle inequality?
The report acknowledged that large numbers of roles still have to be carried out in person, with significant logistical differences between sectors and locations.
Professionals, university graduates, and people living in London are far more likely to work flexibly. Around 55% of employees in office-based roles work in a hybrid pattern, more than twice the rate seen across the wider workforce.
The report concluded that flexible working could also support the government’s efforts to tackle regional inequalities by dispersing citizens — and therefore consumption — more evenly across the country. The committee called on ministers to carry out further research in this area.
UK leads Europe in remote working
Despite room for improvement, the UK is estimated to have some of the highest levels of teleworking globally.
According to the report, the rate of remote work varies widely across Europe, with the UK leading among 18 countries in the Global Survey of Working Arrangements (G-SWA), conducted between November 2024 and February 2025.
Globally, people work from home an average of 1.2 days per week, but the range is large — from just 0.5 days in South Korea to 1.9 days in Canada.
In the UK, the average is 1.8 days per week, making it the highest in Europe and the second highest among all 40 countries surveyed. The survey only covers university graduates.
Prevalence of hybrid work has increased
Office for National Statistics (ONS) data shows how working patterns have changed since the pandemic. It clearly illustrates that the prevalence of hybrid work has increased over the last five years from May 2020 to March 2025.
As of October 2025, the latest data collected between April and June 2025 indicates that 39% of working adults in Great Britain work from home at least some of the time, with 26% engaged in hybrid work, and 13% working fully remotely. The same data suggests that 43% travelled to work exclusively.
Global hiring platform Indeed also found, based on job postings, that hybrid working has become the norm in the UK.
