Essential Return-to-Office Statistics and Trends (2026)

Everyone is returning to the office.

At least, that’s what the headlines lead you to believe. The past year’s news cycle has been dominated by major corporations announcing return-to-office mandates, but the statistics tell a different story. Only 30% of companies are back to fully in-person models, and remote work as a whole is expected to remain virtually unchanged from the peak in 2024.

So, what’s the true state of remote work in America?

Companies cite improved productivity, collaboration, and easier management as reasons for returning to the office, but research on these benefits remains mixed. What’s clear, however, is that employees overwhelmingly prefer remote and hybrid arrangements and experience significantly better work-life balance because of them. Employers allowing flexible roles benefit from lower hiring costs and improved employee retention.

We’ve studied the data to see which companies have returned to the office in 2025 and 2026, the current state of remote and hybrid work in America, and return-to-office trends for employers and employees to be aware of.

[Editor’s note: Updated with the latest data as of July 2026]

Key Return-to-Office Statistics for 2025 and 2026

• 21.7% of US employees worked remotely, at least partially, in June 2026, down slightly from 22.3% in June 2024.
• Hybrid roles are more common than fully remote jobs (50.9% of remote workers are in hybrid roles, compared to 49.1% who work fully remote).
• 54% of Fortune 100 employees were under five-day in-office requirements as of mid-2025, up from 11% a year earlier.
• 64% of US employees would prefer remote or hybrid roles over working from the office every day.
• 64% of remote workers would quit or start looking for a new job if their employer stopped allowing remote or hybrid work.
• 76% of companies experience greater employee retention by allowing remote work.
• 85% of US companies have formal RTO policies requiring employees to work from the office a minimum number of days each week, but only 37% enforce those policies.
• 25% of executives and 18% of HR workers admit they hoped some employees would voluntarily leave because of an RTO mandate.
  

Related: See our national study of Remote and Hybrid workers

TL;DR

The headlines make it seem like remote work ended in 2025 and 2026, but that’s far from the truth. The return-to-office push has been mostly limited to the largest companies and the government. Overall, the percentage of Americans working from home has barely changed since the peak in 2024. Employees, as a whole, still strongly prefer the flexibility of remote and hybrid roles, and many companies still offer some form of flexible work arrangement, with hybrid roles being more common than fully remote.

2025 and 2026 Return-to-Office Mandates from Major Corporations

Following the rise of remote work during the COVID-19 pandemic, RTO mandates began in 2023, but took a few years to pick up steam. The list below includes high-profile RTO mandates impacting workers in 2025 and 2026.

• US Federal Government: In January 2025, President Trump ordered all federal employees to return to the office full-time (source).
• Amazon: 350,000 Amazon employees were called back to the office full-time in January 2025 (source).
• JP Morgan Chase: Ended remote work in April 2025 (source).
• Google: In April 2025, several units forced remote staff to return to the office 3 days per week (source).
• US Bank: Announced in March 2025 that hybrid and remote employees are required to work from the office at least 3 days per week (source).
• AT&T: Required workers to be in the office 5 days per week starting in January 2025 (source).
• Southwest: Requires 4 to 5 days per week in the office, announced in January 2025 (source).
• IBM: Executives and managers must be in the office at least 3 days per week. Remote employees must relocate if they live more than 50 miles from the nearest office (source).
• Dell: Workers must be in the office 5 days per week, as of March 2025 (source).
• 3M: Employees must work from the office at least 4 days per week, effective September 2025 (source).
• Uber: As of April 2025, employees are required to be in the office at least 3 days per week (source).
• HSBC: Managing Directors told to work from the office 4 days a week, July 2025 (source)
• Washington Post: Eliminated hybrid and remote roles in 2025 (source).
• Starbucks: Corporate employees forced back to the office 4 days per week, September 2025 (source).
• Truist: As of January 2026, all employees are required to be in the office 5 days a week (source).
• NBC Universal: Employees must work from the office 4 days per week, effective January 2026 (source).
• Kroger: Employees required in the office 5 days a week, as of January 2026 (source).
• Novo Nordisk: Office staff told to work from the office 5 days per week, effective January 2026 (source).
• TikTok: In 2026, employees are required to work from the office 5 days a week (source).
• Instagram: Employees are required to work in the office 5 days/week, effective February 2026 (source).
• Ubisoft: Fully in-office work required, February 2026 (source)
• Microsoft: Hybrid workers must be in the office 3+ days each week, effective February 2026 (source).
• Fidelity: Ended hybrid work, with 5 days a week in office mandated, announced April 2026 (source).
• PNC: Office attendance required 5 days a week, as of May 2026 (source).
• Paramount Skydance: US in-person and hybrid workers must return to the office in 2026, and some remote workers will have to work from an office in 2027 (source).

Other companies have increased the number of working hours in the office (typically requiring 3-4 days per week) for hybrid roles. This includes Apple, Meta, Microsoft, X, Netflix, Charles Schwab, Wells Fargo, and others (source: Colliers).

The RTO mandates of major corporations and the federal government have had a trickle-down effect:

• 54% of businesses say that they have been at least somewhat influenced by major corporations returning to the office.
• 35% of businesses say they’ve been influenced by the federal government’s return to office.

(Source: ResumeTemplates)

Related: See our updated list of AI layoffs by company

How many companies are returning to the office?

The RTOs of major corporations have dominated the headlines, which might lead you to believe that remote work is dying. Statistics, however, show that hybrid and remote work are still extremely common, with less than 1/3 of companies requiring fully in-person work in 2026.

• 30% of companies require fully in-person work, five days per week.
• 17% require four days in the office.
• 25% require three days in the office.
• 11% require two days in the office.
• 5% require one day or less in the office.
• 10% allow employees to choose fully remote work.
• 2% of businesses are fully remote.

In September of 2025, Gallup reported that hybrid workers spend an average of 46% of their working hours in the office, the same number that they found in 2023. So, despite all of the RTO mandates in the headlines, it seems that hybrid work has barely changed.

According to Gallup, only 21% of US workers are fully on-site. “While return-to-office headlines may grab attention, most organizations are navigating the hybrid era with flexibility,” according to Gallup.

(Sources: Resume Builder and Gallup)

How many Americans work remotely in 2026?

21.7% of US employees worked remotely, at least partially, in June 2026. This includes 19.4% of men and 24.4% of women.

Slightly less than half of remote workers (49.1%) work all of their hours remotely. The other 50.9% are in hybrid roles where they spend some of their hours in the office and work others remotely.

With all of the high-profile RTOs, you might expect remote work to be significantly down in 2026 compared to prior years. However, statistics show that’s not the case. The table below shows the percentage of Americans who worked remotely in each month since 2023. As you can see, remote work is still more common in 2026 than in 2023, and is down only slightly from its peak in 2024.

Percentage of People Who Teleworked by Month

Year	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec
2023	19.4	20.0	19.5	18.5	18.9	19.0	19.9	19.5	19.8	19.8	20.5	21.9
2024	22.9	22.7	23	21.5	21.7	22.3	23	22.8	23.7	23.8	23.3	23.1
2025	23.6	23.7	22.8	21.6	21.5	21.6	22.1	22.1	22.3	Unavailable	22.9	22.5
2026	23.0	22.7	22.6	21.7	21.8	21.7

Source: BLS

The national telework rate hides enormous variation. Where you work depends heavily on what you do.

Remote Work By Industry

Technology is the outlier. Among remote-capable tech workers, roughly 47% are fully remote, and 45% are hybrid, leaving just 9% fully on-site, according to Gallup. Those figures have barely moved since 2022.

The federal government swung hard in the other direction. After the January 2025 return-to-office order, the share of federal workers on a hybrid schedule fell from 61% in late 2024 to 28% by the second quarter of 2025, with 46% now fully on-site, more than double the national average. (Source Gallup )

Between those extremes, the pattern tracks how portable the work is. Information, financial activities, and professional and business services rank near the top for telework, while leisure and hospitality sit at the bottom, since most of those roles have to be done on-site.

The table below shows industry data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Industry	% of Workers Who Teleworked in June 2026
Agriculture	15.9%
Mining, quarrying, and oil and gas extraction	9.1%
Construction	10.2%
Manufacturing	19.5%
Wholesale and retail trade	12.1%
Transportation and utilities	10.0%
Information	47.2%
Financial activities	52.5%
Professional and business services	41.8%
Education and health services	18.0%
Leisure and hospitality	7.7%
Other services	18%
Public administration	21.4%

(Source: BLS)

How many Americans want to work remotely?

RTO mandates go against most workers’ preferences, and the statistics are clear. Below, you’ll find many different reports that show the same thing: Americans want the flexibility to work in hybrid or remote roles.

64% of US employees would prefer remote or hybrid roles over working from the office every day. Here are the top choices:

• Fully remote: 36%
• Hybrid: 28%
• Fully in the office: 27%
• Not sure: 9%

(Source: YouGov)

The preference for flexibility is strong enough that most remote workers would look for another job if they were required to go back to the office. 64% of remote workers would quit immediately or start looking for a new job if their employer stopped allowing remote or hybrid work (source: Founder Reports remote work study).

The preference is also strong enough that many people would take less money for a remote or hybrid job. 60% of remote and hybrid workers would take a pay cut to continue working from home, and 42% would take a pay cut of 10% or more (source: Founder Reports remote work study).

Companies risk losing employees with RTO mandates. But high-performing employees are the most likely to leave, deepening the impact on employers. High-performing employees are 16% more likely to have a low intent to stay in their jobs if they face an RTO mandate (source: Gartner).

The impact on employee retention isn’t theoretical. Many companies have already lost workers as a result of decreased flexibility. A 2024 study showed that 80% of companies already reported losing talent because of RTO mandates (source: Resume Builder).

Even if employees don’t leave immediately after an RTO, job satisfaction may be negatively impacted. 91% of Amazon employees were dissatisfied with the company’s RTO mandate (source: Blind).

Remote and hybrid jobs generate far more interest from applicants compared to fully in-office roles. Only 20% of job listings on LinkedIn are remote or hybrid, but they receive 60% of the applications (source: ERE). A recent Business Insider article reports that remote companies are getting flooded with applicants.

A study by BambooHR showed the preferences by generation, with younger workers being the least likely to prefer remote work. Here are the percentages of employees who prefer to work in the office:

• Gen Z – 46%
• Baby Boomers – 42%
• Gen X – 40%
• Millennials – 37%

(Source: BambooHR)

Why are companies going back to the office?

Companies cite several reasons for returning to the office. The most common contributing factors are:

• 64% – Strengthen company culture
• 62% – Improve productivity
• 45% – Maximize use of the office space
• 19% – To improve retention
• 18% – To improve employee wellbeing
• 11% – To improve employee happiness
• 8% – To get employees to quit

(Source: Resume Builder)

While it’s not among the reasons many companies publicly list for returning to the office, voluntary attrition is often a contributing factor. 8% of respondents in the Resume Builder survey above said getting employees to quit was one of the resources for returning to the office. In a BambooHR survey, 25% of executives and 18% of HR workers admitted they hoped some employees would voluntarily leave because of an RTO mandate. In these cases, RTOs can be viewed as passive layoffs (source: BambooHR).

Policies on hybrid and remote work can be a source of tension among company leaders. 74% of surveyed HR professionals said that RTO mandates have led to leadership conflicts (source: Gartner).

Do companies enforce RTO policies?

RTO mandates force employees to make a decision. Many wonder if, or how, these policies are enforced. In reality, a story in the Wall Street Journal showed that, so far, RTO mandates are not widely enforced.

A CBRE report from August 2025 found that:

• 85% of companies say they have communicated an attendance policy with their team members.
• 69% said they actively measure employee compliance, up from just 45% in 2024.
• Almost 37% said they now take action to enforce the policy, up from just 17% in 2024.

So while the vast majority of businesses do have a formal attendance policy, less than 4 in 10 actually enforce it.

A survey conducted by ResumeTemplates found:

• 47% of companies requiring a five-day office schedule plan to terminate or discipline employees who do not comply.
• 34% of businesses have already implemented badge tracking and attendance monitoring.
• 32% of companies factor in-office attendance into performance evaluations.
• 29% of businesses say they consider office presence for promotions and pay increases.

(Source: CBRE, ResumeTemplates, Wall Street Journal)

Are workers complying with RTO mandates?

Research shows that many employees are ignoring their companies’ return-to-office rules and mandates. While required office time increased by 12% from 2024 to 2025, actual office attendance only increased by 1-3%.

(Source Flex Index)

What risks (for employees) come with hybrid or remote work?

Many remote workers lack job security. 28% of remote workers feel they’ll be laid off before their in-office coworkers (source: BambooHR).

In a study from 2022, when most companies were working remotely, a surprising 96% of executives said they noticed the contributions of employees coming into the office more than those of remote workers. This is more common with male executives than with females. Only 3% of males said they notice contributions of remote workers, compared to 8% of female execs (source: Envoy).

Employees also feel the need to look busy. 88% of remote workers and 79% of in-office workers said they go out of their way to look busy. For remote workers, the most common tactics are leaving messaging apps open to show an active status (64%), social conversations in messaging apps (39%), and sending emails (31%). For in-office workers, the tricks include walking around the office to be seen (37%). planning meetings with coworkers (35%), and arriving earlier or leaving later than their supervisor (33%) (source: BambooHR).

Are in-office employees more productive than remote workers?

When it comes to the effectiveness of in-office work vs. remote work, studies show mixed results. A Lending Tree survey showed that 39% of remote workers have used hacks to make it look like they were working when they were not (source: Lending Tree). And of course, most companies issuing return-to-office mandates say that increased productivity from the office is a contributing factor.

However, many studies and surveys show that remote workers are actually more productive and able to work with deeper focus.

A report from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics says, “our results suggest that the rise in remote work and TFP [total factor productivity] growth are positively correlated” (source: BLS).

Statistics released by Flex Index show that fully-remote firms grew revenue 1.7x faster from 2019-2024 than those that required work from an office (source: Flex Index)

A two-year study of 800,000 employees found “working from home can be just as productive, if not more so, than traditional office setups.” The same report points to leadership as a more significant factor impacting productivity than the location of the workers (source Great Place to Work).

An Owl Labs 2024 study of 2,000 full-time workers found that 90% of hybrid workers say they are just as or more productive when working in a hybrid role compared to being in the office full-time (source: Owl Labs).

A study conducted by BambooHR found that 56% of employees who prefer remote work feel they are more productive working from home. A lack of distractions from coworkers contributes to increased productivity, as 39% of workers say they accomplish less in the office because of socializing with coworkers (source: BambooHR).

Stanford economist Nicholas Bloom found that “employees who work from home for two days a week are just as productive and as likely to be promoted as their fully office-based peers.” He also found that workers with a hybrid schedule were 33% less likely than full-time in-office workers to resign (source: Stanford).

The University of Pittsburgh Associate Professor of Business Administration Mark Ma and PhD student Yuye Ding issue a strong statement in their report. It says, “Our findings are consistent with employees’ concerns that managers use RTO for power grabbing and blaming employees for poor performance. We provide evidence that RTO mandates hurt employee satisfaction but do not improve firm performance” (source: University of Pittsburgh).

The mental health impact of remote work

While productivity studies show mixed results, there’s no denying that hybrid and remote roles provide mental health benefits and an improved work-life balance.

76% of full-time remote and hybrid workers experience improved work-life balance, and 61% experience less burnout or fatigue (source: Gallup)

Benefits of remote work for companies

Employees aren’t the only ones who benefit from flexible work arrangements.

• 76% of companies experience greater employee retention by allowing remote work.
• 84% of companies believe that offering remote work allows them to fill roles that they couldn’t otherwise fill.
• 78% of companies experience increased employee engagement through remote work because of improved work-life balance.

Source: WTW

Looking forward

The return-to-office trend of 2025 represents a significant shift in corporate policy, but the data suggests that flexible work arrangements will remain a permanent feature of the American workplace. Major corporations have grabbed headlines with strict RTO mandates, but most companies continue to offer some form of flexibility, recognizing both employee preferences and the business benefits of remote work.

Companies implementing strict RTO policies risk significant talent loss, while those maintaining flexibility will benefit from better retention and engagement.

The five-day mandate is really a large-employer story, with 54% of Fortune 100 employees required in the office five days a week, up from just 11% a year earlier. But across the workforce as a whole, full-time in-office work remains the exception, and most organizations still offer some form of hybrid schedule.

Workers clearly prefer flexibility and the option to work from home. What changed over the past couple of years was leverage. Hiring cooled sharply, giving employers more room to tighten policies and enforce attendance while employees had fewer outside options.

Enforcement of RTO policies climbed in 2025 and 2026 because the labor market softened, but still, most companies are only loosely enforcing RTO mandates or not enforcing them at all.

For most companies, flexible work is now a fixed part of how they operate. The strong push back to the office is mostly limited to very large organizations.

Return to Office FAQ