It’s now almost five years since the COVID-19 pandemic suddenly thrust remote work into the mainstream in March 2020. Working from home increased tenfold that year and Zoom’s stock price soared by 450%.
While the adoption of remote work was initially a crisis response, employees eventually came to prefer the flexibility and work-life balance of working remotely, not to mention the hours saved from stressful commutes. Many organizations have now settled into a hybrid setup with a mix of in-office and work-from-home days. Meanwhile, the ongoing battle over return-to-office mandates shows that things are still in flux.
So, what’s the status of remote work in 2025? Let’s delve into the key insights and emerging trends.
Remote work: Key insights and stats
According to research by Gallup, half of full-time U.S. workers hold jobs that can be performed remotely. Among those with remote-capable jobs, 27% are fully remote, 53% have a hybrid schedule, and 21% work on-site. The survey also found that fully remote and hybrid employees have “significantly higher employee engagement” than their fully on-site peers.
Research by Stanford economist Nicholas Bloom shows that the number of days spent working from home increased tenfold following the onset of the pandemic, but has settled down to about five times the pre-pandemic level, with people currently teleworking about a quarter of their workdays. In another study of remote work, Bloom reports a 13% improvement in performance, a 50% reduction in quit rates, and $2,000 more profit per remote employee.
Remote work has significantly improved workplace accessibility, boosting labor force participation by people with disabilities—to the tune of 2 million people in the U.S. alone. The shift to remote work has also improved diversity in hiring. A Wharton study that analyzed thousands of technical and managerial job postings found that if the roles were listed as remote, the number of applications from women and underrepresented minorities went up by 15% and 33%, respectively.
The environmental benefits are also significant—people who work from home full-time cut emissions by 54% compared to their office-based peers, and the surge in working from home (including hybrid arrangements) has eased commuting traffic volumes by 10%, leading to reduced air pollution.
The cost of remote work
Despite the many benefits of remote work for people, businesses, and communities, it turns out that working remotely can end up harming employees when it comes to career growth, compensation, and job security—because proximity bias continues to put remote employees at a disadvantage.
According to the Wall Street Journal, an analysis of two million white collar workers shows that remote staff get promoted 31% less frequently than their hybrid or full on-site peers. Essentially, being remote means they miss out on office interactions and the chance to build strong relationships, which translates to fewer promotions.
Similarly, when it comes to compensation, data from Zip Recruiter shows that hybrid roles pay $22,000 less per year than in-office roles. The data also shows that employees who switched from a fully remote job to a fully on-site role received a 29% increase in pay. In other words, flexibility comes at a price for those who choose a hybrid or fully remote setup.
Perhaps most concerning in this era of mass layoffs is that remote workers are more likely to be impacted. The data shows that fully remote workers are 35% more likely to be laid off than their hybrid or on-site peers. It turns out that managers find it easier to deliver the bad news to folks they haven’t gotten to know in person.
What explains these disadvantages for remote employees? Proximity bias plays a major role. According to a KPMG survey, 87% of CEOs say that they’re more inclined to reward employees who come to the office with favorable assignments, raises, or promotions. In other words, by choosing remote work, employees fall out of favor with the leaders whose decisions impact their careers.
The RTO vs. WFH turf wars
Even though remote work has become commonplace, with 28% of workdays in the U.S. being work-from-home days, the great return-to-office vs. work-from-home debate rages on. More and more companies, including industry leaders like Amazon and JPMorgan, are ordering staff to return to the office full-time, while others, like Dell, won’t promote remote workers. Among the CEOs surveyed by KPMG, 83% expect employees to be back in the office full-time within the next three years.
Meanwhile, employees who have come to prize the flexibility of remote and hybrid work are dismayed and angered by the pressure to return to the office. Three in four companies are having trouble enforcing RTO policies because employees simply refuse to comply, and 80% of companies have lost employees over RTO mandates.
What do employees themselves prefer? Gallup reports that 60% of remote-capable employees prefer a hybrid setup, 30% want to be fully remote, and less than 10% prefer to work on-site. In other words, there’s a profound disconnect between business leaders ordering staff back to the office and their employees’ needs and preferences. In fact, many workplace experts believe that RTO mandates are a calculated move to reduce headcount without resorting to layoffs, and one in four corporate leaders even admit to this intent.
Clearly, the matter is far from settled, and the RTO vs. WFH skirmishes will continue in 2025.
Hybrid work as the new normal
Five years on from the start of the pandemic, hybrid work seems to have emerged as the frontrunner, both in terms of actual practice and employee preference.
Stanford economist Nicholas Bloom reports that most professionals are now working in a hybrid setup, typically going to the office three days a week. According to Gallup, 53% of U.S. employees with remote-capable jobs are currently working in a hybrid setup, and 60% say they prefer hybrid over fully remote or fully on-site.
Hybrid has emerged as the new normal because it offers a happy medium between companies wanting to see employees in the office and employees wanting flexibility. It also strikes a balance between facilitating social interaction and collaboration in the office and promoting deep work and flexibility on work-from-home days.
However, hybrid work requires thoughtful coordination to keep teams aligned, particularly when employees have varying office schedules. This is essentially a management issue, and it’s up to leaders and managers to adopt emerging best practices for managing hybrid teams.
Build remote and hybrid teams with Oyster
Whether your organization embraces remote or hybrid work, Oyster’s employer of record solution can help you compliantly hire, pay, and offer benefits to top talent worldwide. With deep local knowledge backed by HR and legal experts, Oyster acts as a strategic partner to help you expand your team across borders. We handle the entire employee lifecycle from contracts and onboarding to compliance, payroll, benefits, and more—so you can focus on your business.
Reach out today to learn how Oyster can transform your talent strategy and support your global expansion goals.
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Oyster is a global employment platform designed to enable visionary HR leaders to find, engage, pay, manage, develop, and take care of a thriving distributed workforce. Oyster lets growing companies give valued international team members the experience they deserve, without the usual headaches and expense.
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