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Work-From-Home Era May Be Over, Labor Department Survey Finds

The number of businesses that said employees rarely or never work from home hit 72.5%, approaching the pre-pandemic rate of 76.7%.

From masks to Zoom cocktail hours, many of the defining features of the pandemic have slowly slipped out of our lives. Now more and more Americans are saying goodbye to another pandemic staple—remote work. According to a report released by the Department of Labor, reported by the Wall Street Journal, the number of establishments that said their employees rarely or never work from home has reached 72.5%, rising from 60.1% last year and approaching the pre-pandemic rate of 76.7%. Businesses in the information industry, which includes tech and media, have held onto the most remote jobs, with 67.4% of their employees Zooming in from their homes at least some of the time, while service-sectors jobs like retail and food services are requiring nearly all of their employees to be on-site. Even among white-color workers, however, there has been a significant recent move back to the workplace, as evidence has emerged tying in-person work to increased productivity.