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Remote work is a durable option for many U.S. businesses, but that does not mean every role should be remote or that productivity improves automatically. In the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Current Population Survey, 35.5 million people—22.9% of people at work—teleworked or worked at home for pay in the first quarter of 2024, up from 19.6% a year earlier. That measure includes paid telework and work at home; it is not a count of full-time remote jobs. For companies considering a remote or hybrid arrangement, the practical question is which tasks can be done well away from the workplace and what support workers need to do them.
Why remote work is likely to remain an option
Remote work did not return to its pre-pandemic level in the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ series. In 2019, 6.5% of workers in the private business sector worked primarily from home. By the first quarter of 2024, the BLS counted 35.5 million people, or 22.9% of people at work, teleworking or working at home for pay. The measures differ: the 2019 figure concerns primarily working from home in the private business sector, while the 2024 figure also includes people who teleworked or worked at home for pay during the survey reference week. Neither figure means that all those workers held fully remote jobs. BLS telework trends, March 2025 provides the later measure.
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Employer expectations point in the same direction, though they are not guarantees. A June 2025 working paper from the U.S. Census Bureau’s Center for Economic Studies drew on more than 150,000 firm-level responses collected from November 2024 through January 2025. Businesses reported that employees worked from home about one day per week on average and expected similar levels five years ahead. That is a survey finding about firms’ expectations, not a promise that those levels will materialize. The Census Center for Economic Studies paper describes the analysis.
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The evidence supports treating remote work as a continuing option in the United States, not as a universal replacement for workplaces. Roles involving physical equipment, in-person service, or work that depends on shared facilities may need onsite time. Other roles may be done remotely, fully or part of the week, if the tools, work environment, and management practices support them.
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Are workers more productive or less productive when working from home?
There is no single answer that applies to every worker, job, or company. BLS economists Sabrina Wulff Pabilonia and Jill Janocha Redmond write: “The answer likely depends on several factors, including the types of tasks workers perform, the available technology, the home environment, worker motivation, and management practices.” They published that assessment in an October 2024 BLS article, “The rise in remote work since the pandemic and its impact on productivity.”
What the productivity figures show—and do not show
The BLS analysis examined 61 private-sector industries. From 2019 to 2022, an average 11.8 percentage-point increase in the share of remote workers across industries was associated with an average 1.1 percentage-point increase in industry-level total factor productivity. The authors also found positive, statistically significant associations between increased remote work and productivity growth across the periods 2019–21 and 2019–22, including after accounting for pre-pandemic trends.
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Those are industry-level relationships, not an estimate of what a particular company would gain by adopting remote work. The study does not establish that remote work caused the productivity change, and it does not predict an individual employee’s output. The BLS article discusses other findings as well: some single-firm experiments reported small positive individual productivity effects for hybrid and fully remote work; pandemic case studies found short-run declines; and separate aggregate research found little relationship between an industry’s ability to work remotely and its labor productivity.
Productivity is also an employer concern
The Census Center for Economic Studies paper identifies productivity as businesses’ largest concern about working from home and reports differing assessments of whether onsite or home work is more productive. That variation is a reason to define what good work looks like and evaluate the arrangement against it—not proof that remote work universally succeeds or fails.
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How to decide which work can be remote
There is no single arrangement that fits every company. Compare fully remote, hybrid, and primarily onsite work against the actual tasks, tools, and people involved. The following criteria are practical management guidance informed by the factors in the BLS analysis; they are not a program proven to work for every employer.
- Task requirements: Identify work that requires equipment, physical presence, customer contact, or collaboration in a shared space. Distinguish those tasks from work that can be completed independently with digital tools.
- Technology and access: Check whether workers have reliable access to the software, files, systems, and secure connections their roles require. Note which tasks depend on equipment that cannot reasonably be used at home.
- Work environment and worker circumstances: Consider whether the home setup can support the work and whether the proposed arrangement is workable for the people in the role. Individual needs and suitable setups vary.
- Outputs and decision-making: Set clear goals, deadlines, decision rights, and ways to get timely feedback. Evaluate completed work and service outcomes rather than treating online presence as a substitute for results.
- Communication: Agree on which channels to use, when colleagues need to be reachable, how handoffs happen, and which discussions are better handled live.
As a practical starting point, define expectations for each role, try the arrangement in a limited scope, and review whether work outcomes and employee experience meet the company’s needs. Adjust tasks, support, or the onsite/remote balance based on what you learn. This review approach is management advice, not a guarantee of improved productivity.
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How to make a home computer workstation more workable
A remote-work setup does not have to mean buying a fixed list of products. OSHA’s U.S. computer-workstation guidance emphasizes fitting and adjusting the chair, desk, keyboard, and monitor together. Start with the equipment and space available, then address the points that interfere with comfortable, practical work.
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Set the screen position
- Place the monitor directly in front of you and at least 20 inches away.
- Keep the top line of the screen at or below eye level.
- Adjust the screen together with the desk, chair, and keyboard; ideal positioning also depends on posture and the other workstation components.
These are OSHA recommendations, not a one-size-fits-all prescription. See OSHA’s monitor guidance.
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Adjust the chair and desk as a system
OSHA describes a well-designed, adjusted chair as an essential part of a computer workstation. Arrange the chair, monitor, keyboard, and desk together so the screen position works with your seated posture and the way you type. Review OSHA’s chair guidance and its broader workstation components guidance.
Choose laptop accessories only where they solve a problem
For intensive typing on a primary laptop, OSHA recommends considering an auxiliary full-size keyboard and monitor. A laptop docking station can help position a separate monitor appropriately. These are conditional options, not a mandatory shopping list: whether they are useful depends on the task, equipment, space, and fit. OSHA’s purchasing guide discusses docking stations and workstation components.
Compare arrangements without assuming one is best
Use the same practical questions to evaluate fully remote, hybrid, and primarily onsite work. The table is a decision aid, not a claim that one model produces better results across companies.
| Arrangement | What to assess | Questions to resolve |
|---|---|---|
| Fully remote | Whether essential tasks, collaboration, and service can be carried out with remote tools and a suitable home setup. | Can workers access the required systems and equipment? Are outcomes, handoffs, and feedback clear? |
| Hybrid | Which tasks benefit from shared onsite time and how that time relates to remote work. | What requires co-location, and how will teams coordinate schedules and decisions? |
| Primarily onsite | Whether physical presence is necessary for the role’s tasks, equipment, or service needs. | Which work genuinely requires a workplace, and can some other tasks be done remotely? |
When reviewing results, keep the measures distinct: occasional paid telework is not the same as primarily working from home, and industry-level productivity is not an individual worker’s output. A company should judge its arrangement by its own role requirements and outcomes rather than treating either national prevalence or an industry association as a forecast for its workforce.
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