Office-based Employment in Germany: A Regional Analysis

By analysing occupations, it is possible to establish white-collar worker numbers, including the self-employed and civil servants, by sector. The approach also allows regional quantification of office-based employment. The results show that in Germany a total of around 14.8 million people work in offices. From 2012 to 2018, the number of office workers increased by almost 3 million, rising from 35.2 per cent to 36.7 per cent of the total workforce. Office-based employment has risen particularly sharply in Germany's seven largest cities, with increases ranging from 23 per cent in Düsseldorf to 42 per cent in Berlin, but even more steeply in certain less densely populated counties – especially in the southern state of Bavaria. Around 46 per cent of white-collar workers in regular employment work occasionally or frequently from home, and a further 39 per cent at least have the potential to do so. Since 2006, the proportion of employees doing remote work frequently or occasionally has risen by around 9 percentage points. In view of the structural changes that are currently taking place, and which may accelerate as a result of the corona pandemic, the German Economic Institute (IW) intends to publish regular empirical surveys of office-based employment in Germany.