Remote Work Doesn’t Seem to Affect Productivity, Fed Study Finds
- San Francisco Fed economists don’t see evidence of correlation
- About 30% of paid workdays were still remote as of end of 2023
While many US companies have been pushing employees to return to the office, a hybrid model has so far endured.
Photographer: David Williams/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
US industries that are more adaptable to remote work haven’t seen a bigger boost — or decline — in productivity growth since 2020 compared to industries with more in-person work, according to new research from the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco.
While the shift toward remote-work arrangements has reshaped society in ways that will continue to evolve, there is “little evidence in industry data that the shift to remote and hybrid work has either substantially held back or boosted the rate of productivity growth,” San Francisco Fed economists led by John Fernald said in a study published Tuesday on the bank’s website.