Remote work doesn't affect productivity, according to Fed study

U.S. 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.

Read more: A blueprint for burnout recovery: How Exos is keeping its staff productive and healthy

The researchers examined productivity trends in 43 industries — including chemical manufacturing, retail trade, and accommodation and food services — and assigned a "teleworkability" score based on the occupational mix of each industry and the share of jobs that can be done remotely.

"If remote work boosts productivity in a substantial way, then it should improve productivity performance, especially in those industries where teleworking is easy to arrange and widely adopted, such as professional services, compared with those where tasks need to be performed in person, such as restaurants," Fernald and his co-authors wrote.

Read more: How to lead employees toward happiness — and productivity

But after controlling for pre-pandemic trends by industry, they found little statistical relationship between productivity and the prevalence of remote work since the pandemic.

The COVID-19 upheaval brought about a massive surge in telework. At its peak, more than 60% of workdays were done remotely, compared to just 5% before the pandemic. And while many U.S. companies have been pushing employees to return to the office, a hybrid model has so far endured, with about 30% of paid workdays done remotely as of December 2023, according to the study.