Working from home by industry (grouped bar chart)

The bar chart shows the percentage of employees who worked mainly from home in four industries, Tech, Finance, Education and Retail, in 2019 and 2023.

Overall, the percentages went up in all four industries.

In 2019, in Tech the figure was 18% and in 2023 it was 61%. In Finance it was 9% in 2019 and 44% in 2023. In Education the number was 4% in 2019 and it rose to 21% in 2023. In Retail it was only 2% in 2019 and 6% in 2023. Tech had the highest number in both years and Retail had the lowest number in both years. So all four industries had more people working from home in 2023 than in 2019, and the difference in Tech was the biggest.

The bar chart compares the proportion of employees who worked mainly from home across four industries — Tech, Finance, Education and Retail — in 2019 and 2023.

Overall, home working increased markedly in every industry over the four-year period, yet the extent of the change varied considerably, with knowledge-based sectors such as Tech and Finance seeing far steeper rises than Retail.

In 2019, remote working was relatively uncommon everywhere: Tech led with 18%, followed by Finance at 9%, while Education and Retail trailed at just 4% and 2% respectively. By 2023, however, the picture had shifted dramatically. Tech more than tripled to 61%, and Finance rose almost fivefold to 44%, meaning that in both sectors close to half or more of staff worked from home.

Education also grew substantially, reaching 21%, more than five times its earlier level. Retail, by contrast, recorded only a modest increase to 6%, remaining by far the lowest of the four throughout the period.