While policymakers and experts continue to debate the merits and drawbacks of working from home, a recent UK parliament report has suggested that remote options could help boost employment.
As well as helping to retain staff, researchers noted that flexible arrangements may bring people back into the workforce who might not otherwise be able to work.
The select committee’s report, titled “Is working from home working?”, drew on evidence from a wide range of experts to examine the impact of different work set-ups on individuals, productivity, businesses, and workplace relations.
The report was published days after figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) showed that UK unemployment had risen to 5% in the three months to September.
As the job market weakens, UK working-pattern data indicates that parents, carers, and people with disabilities could particularly benefit from more flexible conditions.
“I gave up my job of 14 years because childcare was too expensive,” said one respondent in a survey cited by the report.
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Authors of the publication also cited research from Italy, which found that flexible arrangements have opened up new opportunities for parents and carers by allowing them to balance domestic and professional responsibilities more effectively.
Moreover, the report pointed out that the potential benefits for disabled staff align closely with the government’s stated priorities on disability employment.
The report acknowledged that large numbers of roles still have to be carried out in person, with significant logistical differences between sectors and locations.
Professionals, university graduates, and people living in London are far more likely to work flexibly. Around 55% of employees in office-based roles work in a hybrid pattern, more than twice the rate seen across the wider workforce.
The report concluded that flexible working could also support the government’s efforts to tackle regional inequalities by dispersing citizens — and therefore consumption — more evenly across the country. The committee called on ministers to carry out further research in this area.
Despite room for improvement, the UK is estimated to have some of the highest levels of teleworking globally.
According to the report, the rate of remote work varies widely across Europe, with the UK leading among 18 countries in the Global Survey of Working Arrangements (G-SWA), conducted between November 2024 and February 2025.