Remote Workers Log 58% More Solo Hours, Study Finds, as EU Home-Office Rates Range from 1% to 21%
14.06.2026 - 00:24:30 | boerse-global.de
A sweeping US study published in the journal Science this June delivers a stark message for the growing ranks of remote employees: working from home comes with a hidden psychological cost. Researchers Natalia Emanuel and Emma Harrington analyzed data from more than 500,000 workers collected between 2011 and 2024. Their finding: teleworkers spend 58 percent more of their day alone than colleagues who go into an office. The probability of experiencing an entire day without any human contact rises by 72 percent.
Crucially, the isolation is not offset by more socializing after hours. The study tied the pattern to lower psychological well-being and a higher uptake of mental-health services.
Working psychologist Laura Venz of Leuphana University Lüneburg said the results are likely transferable to German-speaking countries, though she cautioned against assuming a direct causal link.
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The findings land as fresh Eurostat data for 2025 and 2026 lay bare the deep splits in how Europeans work. Across the EU, an average of 8.8 to 8.9 percent of employees do their jobs mainly from home. Finland tops the list with 20.9 percent, followed by Ireland at 19.8 percent and Belgium at 13.5 percent. Germany sits at 13 percent—comfortably above the EU mean.
Southern Europe occupies the opposite end of the scale. Romania reports just 1.3 percent remote workers, Bulgaria 1.4 percent, and Italy 2.7 percent. The gap reflects more than digital infrastructure or legislation, experts say. Italy’s economy relies heavily on crafts, tourism, and care work—sectors that demand physical presence.
The divergence is even more pronounced among the self-employed. In Finland, 34 percent of freelancers and sole traders work from home. Germany and France hover around 30 percent. In Italy, the figure plummets to 5.3 percent.
Despite the psychological risks flagged by the US study, the hunger for flexibility shows no sign of cooling. A survey by XING and forsa, polling over 3,400 employees from December 2025 to January 2026, found that only 14 percent consider location-independent work unimportant. For comparison, 50 percent said the same about having an office dog, and 43 percent about job-sharing.
Broader structural shifts are already underway. A joint study by the German Cooperative Banks Association (BVR) and IW Consult projects regional employment will diverge sharply by 2035. While total national employment remains flat, southern Germany, Berlin, Weser-Ems, and Schleswig-Holstein could see gains of up to 10 percent. Eastern Germany, the Saarland, and Rhineland-Palatinate face potential declines of as much as 15 percent. The drivers: demographics, digitalization, and a pivot from manufacturing to health and IT services.
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The real-estate sector is adapting. In Vienna, a new residential development with 382 units is intentionally targeting the "home-office generation." Beyond standard rental apartments and serviced flats, the complex offers co-working spaces, podcast studios, and fitness rooms. Its target audience: international specialists and mobile professionals.
A Japanese survey of 1,000 teleworkers conducted in spring 2026 adds a nuanced perspective. Full-time remote employees are more than twice as likely as office-based staff to report that they naturally switch between work and leisure—19.4 percent versus 8.2 percent. Yet one in four respondents still wants explicit rules to protect them from being contacted outside core working hours.
