Working from home after COVID-19: Evidence from job postings in 20 countries

Remote work surged during the COVID-19 pandemic. To analyze its post-pandemic persistency, we construct an original dataset measuring remote and hybrid work (WFH) in 20 OECD countries and 55 occupations from January 2019 to December 2023, based on over 1 billion job postings from the global job site Indeed. The share of job postings advertising WFH more than quadrupled from about 2.5 % to around 11 % between January 2020 and January 2023 in the average country in our sample, continuing to grow even after pandemic-related restrictions were phased out. Exploiting changes in pandemic severity across countries and differences in the feasibility of remote work across occupations in a difference-in-differences design, we find that increases in pandemic severity substantially raised advertised WFH, but pandemic easing had no effect. We then use job search data to document persistently high interest in WFH from jobseekers and conclude that the post-pandemic persistency of WFH may partly be a response by employers to demand for flexibility from workers.