Want a quick look at where return-to-office (RTO) stands?
Here are the numbers that matter.
Key Return to Office Statistics
- 61% of workers want to work remotely indefinitely.
- Six in 10 employees are more likely to apply for a job that offers a remote work option.
- 49% of employees are worried that returning to the office could compromise their work-life balance.
- In 2025, 46% of US remote and hybrid workers said they’d likely quit if forced into full RTO.
- 77% of managers in the US are ready to fire, cut pay, or limit promotion opportunities for staff who don’t comply with return-to-office mandates.
- 43% of employees reported that nothing happened when they worked fewer days in the office than requested.
- 51% of workers who still WFH said their bosses had announced a plan to return to the office.
- 75% of managers want employees back in the office, citing a loss of company culture, potential lack of focus, and reduced productivity as the key reasons for returning.
Worker Preferences & Sentiment About Remote/Hybrid/In-Office
- 55% of workers want to work from the office fewer than three days per week.
- 72% of staffers prefer a hybrid remote-office model.
- 37% of working professionals feel more anxious, worried, and stressed when they go into the office.
- Over half of fully in-person office workers (55%) would prefer a more flexible work arrangement.
- 64% of the global workforce has already searched for or would consider searching for a new job if their boss were to require them to return to the office full-time.
- Over 75% of employees have found simple pleasures in working from home, such as:
| Most-Liked Perks of Working from Home | Share of Employees (In %) |
| More frequent coffee or snack breaks | 54 |
| Extra time with family | 51 |
| Casual dress code | 50 |
| More comfortable seating | 50 |
- 40% of staffers are comfortable returning to the office now, whereas 18% don’t want to go back no matter what.
- 86% of employees want to WFH at least two days a week.
- In 2025, only 24% of hybrid US workers said they’d choose full-time remote work if given the option. Most (72%) preferred a hybrid approach.
- In 2025, 63% of US adults who rarely or never work from home said they’d choose to work remotely most or some of the time. 19% said they’d go fully remote, while 17% said they’d still prefer to work on-site.
- In 2024, 28% of US employees said they’d consider quitting if required to return to the office.
- When considering hybrid workers’ preferred number of days in the office in the United States in 2025, 32% prefer two days a week, and 25% prefer three days a week.
- If flexible work were taken away, 40% of US workers would start job hunting for another job that offers more flexibility in when and where they work.
- 5% of US workers would flat out quit if flexible work were taken away.
- If hybrid or remote workers in the United States were no longer allowed to work flexibly in 2025, 22% would expect a pay increase.
- If hybrid or remote workers in the United States were no longer allowed to work remotely or in a hybrid manner in 2025, 19% would stay but be less happy, and 4% would stay but be less willing to work as hard.
- In 2025, 45% of US hybrid workers preferred spending a full workday in the office.
- In 2025, 44% of US workers said political views at work (from employers or colleagues) made them not want to go to the office.
- In 2025, 34% of US workers said a full-time in-office requirement would stop them from accepting a job offer.
- In 2025, 46% of US workers reported that being forced into full-time office work was one of their biggest workplace concerns.
Executive vs Employee Misalignment
- Just 13% of executives are willing to let go of the office forever.
- 68% of executives believe that regular employees should be in the office at least three days a week to maintain a company culture.
- 65% of leaders believe the office is “very important” to improving employee productivity, and a little over 50% consider it very important for collaboration.
RTO Mandates: Drivers, Enforcement & Compliance
- In 2025, 79% of US workers reported that employers encourage RTO to boost productivity and collaboration.
| Reasons for RTO Enforcement | Share of US Workers (In %) |
|---|---|
| Improved productivity and collaboration | 79 |
| Leadership oversight and visibility | 78 |
| Company culture and team cohesion | 76 |
| Traditional work norms | 74 |
| Better client service and responsiveness | 73 |
| Aligning with industry norms and competitors | 68 |
| Justifying office leases and real estate spend | 66 |
- In 2025, among Americans not working fully remotely, 75% said their employer required in-person work, up from 63% in early 2023.
- In 2024, 42% of full-time US employees who returned to the office said they were mainly showing up for visibility.
- In 2024, 52% of US managers stated that the primary goal of their company’s RTO mandate was to improve employee development, followed by monitoring employees (32%).
- In 2024, 25% of US VP and C-suite executives and 18% of HR professionals said they hoped for some voluntary turnover during an RTO mandate.
- In 2024, 37% of US managers, directors, and executives believed their organization carried out layoffs because fewer employees quit than expected during RTO.
- In 2024, 42% of US employees believed companies might use RTO mandates to justify office spending and support local businesses.
- In 2024, 43% of US workers reported that their employer pushed for more in-person attendance over the past year without raising pay.
- In 2025, 72% of organizations in the US, Canada, and Latin America reported meeting their office-attendance targets, up from 61% in 2024.
- In 2025, 69% of organizations in the US, Canada, and Latin America monitored compliance with office-attendance policies, up from 45% in 2024.
- In 2025, 37% of organizations in the US, Canada, and Latin America reported enforcing attendance policies, up from 17% in 2024.
- In 2025, 26% of organizations in the US, Canada, and Latin America expected employees to be on-site four to five days a week, up from 23% in 2024.
- In 2025, 43% of US hybrid employees said they sometimes stop by the office for a few hours just to be seen.
Office Attendance Patterns & Capacity Trends
- When and why to come into the office has been the biggest challenge for 38% of hybrid employees.
- In Q2 2025, about 18.4% of US office space sat vacant.
- In 2025, 73% of organizations in the US, Canada, and Latin America said their offices were effectively at capacity (61–100% occupied) on peak days.
- In 2025, 34% of organizations in the US, Canada, and Latin America said their average office attendance reached capacity, up from 28% in 2024.
- In 2025, employers in the US, Canada, and Latin America expected an average of 3.2 in-office days per week, while employees actually averaged 2.9.
- In 2025, 66% of organizations in the US, Canada, and Latin America said their office space was under 60% utilized on a typical week.
- In 2025, 39% of US hybrid employees reported going into the office three days a week.
| Office Attendance Among Hybrid US Employees (2025) | In % |
|---|---|
| 4 days/week | 34 |
| 2 days/week | 22 |
| 1 day/week | 5 |
Productivity, Performance & Career Outcomes
- 52% of fully remote workers are very satisfied with their jobs, compared to 40% of employees working mainly from the office.
- 68% of in-person workers consider their job very meaningful, compared to 60% of remote or mostly remote workers and 54% of employees who work primarily in-person.
- 52% of staffers expect in-person workers to have better career opportunities than remote workers.
- In 2024, 25% of US in-person workers felt they exceeded their supervisors’ expectations, compared with 15% of hybrid workers.
- In 2024, 58% of US employees who returned to the office reported that their professional network had improved.
- In 2024, 48% of US employees who returned to the office said their work results improved after RTO.
- In 2024, 45% of US employees who experienced RTO said their organization suffered significant talent loss.
- In 2025, among US workers who admitted to quiet quitting, 67% worked in an office, compared with 28% who worked in a hybrid setting and 5% who worked remotely.
Reasons To Work From Home
- 49% of workers are anxious to return to the office due to the associated costs of the commute or food.
- When it comes to remote and hybrid employees who already have the option to work in the office, the primary reasons for staying home are improved productivity (17%) and avoiding commuting (17%).
| Reasons to Work from Home | In % |
| Improved productivity | 17 |
| Not having to commute | 17 |
| Lack of an actual need to go into the office | 15 |
| Not having anyone else in the office | 6 |
- 60% of employees wish they could permanently work from home to avoid social awkwardness.
Incentives & Costs of Returning to the Office
- In 2025, 92% of US workers said that the right incentives could persuade them to return to the office.
- In 2025, 41% of U.S. workers reported that higher pay was the most substantial incentive for them to return to the office.
| RTO Incentives (US, 2025) | Share of Workers (In %) |
|---|---|
| Higher pay | 41 |
| Company-paid commuting or parking costs | 33 |
| Free or subsidized food and beverages | 32 |
- 88% of companies use incentives to get employees back on-site, and 85% of them think they are working.
| Employers’ Incentives to Get Employees Back in the Office | In % |
| Food and beverage programs | 56 |
| Social events | 42 |
| Company events | 41 |
| Improved or new furniture and amenities | 40 |
| Revamped office environment (e.g., occasional social games) | 39 |
- In 2025, full-time in-office and hybrid workers in the US had an average commute of 31 minutes.
- In 2025, US in-person and hybrid workers spent an average of $55 per day in the office, down 10% from $61 in 2024.
- In 2025, in-person and hybrid workers in the US spent $15 of their daily office costs on commuting.
Demographic & Role Differences
- 58% of women want to work in a hybrid or remote setting at least three days a week, compared to 48% of men.
- Tech or computer science employees are the most excited about a hybrid role (50%). In contrast, arts and entertainment workers would rather be fully in-office (54%).
- Roughly 71% of Gen Zers (aged 18–24) would consider looking for a new job if their employer required them to return to the office full-time. In contrast, only 61% of those aged 35 to 44 and 56% of those aged 45 to 54 would follow suit.
- Newbie employees (with 0–5 years of experience) are more likely to want to be in the office more often: 30% of them like to WFH no more than one day per week, vs. just 20% of all respondents.
- The least experienced working professionals are more likely to feel less productive when they work from home than their more experienced colleagues (34% vs. 23%).
- In 2024, 43% of US workers with disabilities said they’d consider quitting if RTO were mandated, compared with 27% of non-disabled workers.
Remote-Capable Roles & Workforce Structure
- In 2025, approximately one in five US adults worked from home regularly, while 43% reported routinely working on-site.
- In the US in 2025, 75% of adults with jobs that can be done remotely worked from home at least part-time.
- In 2025, 73% of US workers said their company hadn’t changed its remote or hybrid policies in the past year.
- In 2025, five out of 10 full-time US employees held remote-capable jobs.
- In 2025, six in ten US employees with remote-capable jobs preferred a hybrid work arrangement, about one-third preferred fully remote work, and fewer than 10% preferred full-time on-site work.
Learn More
Looking for more statistics? Check out these:
- Employee Burnout Statistics
- Business Travel Statistics
- Gig Economy Statistics
- Virtual Meeting Statistics
- Side Hustle Statistics
- LinkedIn Statistics
- Digital Nomad Statistics
- SaaS Statistics
Sources
- Apollo Technical, “Statistics on Remote Workers That Will Surprise You”
- BambooHR, “The New Surveillance Era: Visibility Beats Productivity for RTO & Remote”
- Barrero M., Bloom N., Davis S., “Why Working from Home Will Stick”
- Berger C., “A Huge Number of Employees Are Rebelling against In-Office Mandates. The Battle Is Just Beginning”
- Business Wire, “Two-Thirds of Remote Workers Are Planning to Go Back to the Office – But Not Every Day, Qualtrics Study Shows”
- CBRE, “Americas Office Occupier Sentiment Survey”
- Envoy, “At Work: The Workplace Trends Report”
- Erickson R., Cohen D., Ray R., “The Reimagined Workplace Two Years Later”
- Future Forum, “Future Forum Pulse Summer Snapshot”
- Future Forum, “Inflexible Return-To-Office Policies Are Hammering Employee Experience Scores”
- Gallup, “Global Indicator: Hybrid Work”
- HiBob, “Coming Back to the Office Survey”
- Javed S., “Employees Still Reluctant to Return to the Office, Study Finds”
- Kolakowski N., “Workers Really Don’t Want to Return to the Office Full-Time: Poll”
- Korolevich S., “The Great Return: Survey Of Managers Reveals Return To Office Battle”
- McKinney J., “New Poll: About 90% Of Americans Are Ready to Return to the Office and Stop Working Remotely”
- Microsoft, “Great Expectations: Making Hybrid Work Work”
- McKinsey, “Creating a Return to Office Policy That Works”
- Owl Labs, “State of Hybrid Work”
- Pew Research Center, “Remote Workers’ Views of Returning to Office”
- Rippling, “Employee Expectations after 2 Years of Working from Home”
- Shaw W., “Just 3% of White Collar Workers Want a Full Office Return”
- Sherman A., “Making Sense of Why Executives Are Eager to Get Employees Back in the Office”
- Smith M., “64% Of Workers Would Consider Quitting If Asked to Return to the Office Full-Time”
- Statista, “Nearly One in Five Americans Works From Home Regularly”
- Statista, “Quarterly Office Vacancy Rates in the United States”
As a Digital PR specialist and a member of the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ), Max has 5+ years of writing experience.
Over the course of his career, Max’s work has garnered significant attention, with features in numerous prominent publications such as The New York Times, Forbes, Inc., Business Insider, Fast Company, Entrepreneur, BBC, TechRepublic, Glassdoor, and G2.
