Aussie workers continue to be obsessed with working from home, according to new stats

It was the trend everyone flocked to during the pandemic that is still going strong with Australian workers.

SFewer Australians are choosing to work from home than they were two years ago, according to fresh new figures. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Max Mason-Hubers

Fewer Australians are choosing to work from home than they were two years ago, according to fresh new figures.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics estimated over a third of workers were still logging in from their lounge room or spare bedrooms.

Head of labour statistics Bjorn Jarvis said while that figure was down on pandemic highs the nature of Australian workplaces had shifted.

“Our latest data, for August 2023, shows that 37 per cent of Australians work from home regularly,” he said.

Aussies are still continuing to hold onto their pandemic working conditions. Picture: iStock

“While this was down from around 40 per cent in 2021, it was still five percentage points above the pre-pandemic level, showing that many of the changes in behaviour and working arrangements have continued beyond the pandemic.”

Prior to the pandemic the number of people working from home hovered between 30 to 40 per cent.

Around 4 to 8 per cent of people worked most of their hours from home.

But when the nation was put into lockdown to slow the spread of Covid-19 it soared to 40 per cent in 2021.

Close to two-thirds (60 per cent) of managers and professionals were still working from home regularly compared to around one in five (22 per cent) across other occupations.

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The data suggested those who worked from home were more likely to clock up extra hours in paid or unpaid overtime.

The main reason people listed for working from home was due to flexible working arrangements (39) per cent).

Between 2015 and 2019 the main reason people said they were logging on at home was to catch up on work.

Mr Jarvis, however, noted the flexibility of working from home did not apply to other arrangements, such as working flexible hours.

“Apart from working from home, most other arrangements have generally followed pre-pandemic trends,” he said.