1 in 5 Brits still working from home as Boris Johnson pushes for return to office
1 in 5 people (20%) in Britain are still working from home full-time, according to new data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
Some 57% of employees are now commuting to their place of work.
It comes as Boris Johnson is pushing for more people to get back to the office to help save city centre economies and prevent a collapse in the commercial property market.
The ONS data tallies with a separate survey by Morgan Stanley that found 56% of Brits have now returned to their normal place of work. However, Morgan Stanley found just 34% of desk-bound office workers had returned to normal working patterns.
“Over the last two months, the proportion working exclusively from home has followed a steadily decreasing trend,” the ONS said.
“In the most recent week, the proportion of working adults who travelled to work reached 57%, its highest level since the series began, after increasing steadily over the last two months.”
READ MORE: UK government faces uphill battle getting people back to offices
Even as people begin to resume normal working patterns, the ONS’s survey found businesses continue to struggle and the labour market is weak.
Over half (54%) of businesses said they were waiting on late payment of invoices as a result of COVID-19. Some 47% have seen revenues decline, with 9% of businesses saying income was at least 50% below where it was last year.
And 11% of the workforce remain on furlough, the ONS estimated, down from 13% a week prior.
Faced with falling revenue and an uncertain future, businesses are not hiring. Job adverts are 55% lower than a year ago, the ONS said, marking the fourth week in a row of heavily depressed recruitment activity. However, nearly all regions of the UK saw a slight increase in job ads week-on-week, bar London and the North West where vacancies continued to decline.