Remote working closed 2023 increasing 19.4% year-on-year, equivalent to 3.06 million people who at least occasionally worked from home in the fourth quarter of the year, according to Adecco's Employment Opportunities and Job Satisfaction Monitor.
Before the pandemic, 1.64 million people worked from home, reaching a maximum of 3.55 million in the second quarter of 2020. Of the 1.91 million teleworkers that emerged due to the pandemic, 494,500 have stopped working remotely (-25.8%), and 1.42 million still do.
However, when taking the four-quarter moving average as a reference, the share of people who work from home of all active people increased by 0.9 percentage points in the year-on-year comparison, up to 13.6%, which is 2.6 percentage points less than the highest figure on record (March 2021).
A comparison of Spain's situation with other countries shows that, despite the increase in 2023, the gap with the European Union (EU) would have increased by two percentage points compared to the previous year, to -10.5 percentage points.
To this end, among the 20 largest EU countries, Spain occupies 13th place, one above where it was in terms of 2019's remote work penetration, according to Eurostat data.
Madrid, the most prominent autonomous community
By autonomous communities, as occurred in 2022, teleworking in 2023 was more prominent in the Community of Madrid, which reached 22.7% of teleworkers and, to a lesser extent, in Catalonia, with 14.9%.
Furthermore, in 2023, another community joins those above the national average: the Valencian Community, with 13.8%, being the second community to show more growth compared to the previous year, only behind Madrid.
Fourteen communities show a year-on-year increase in remote workers in the fourth quarter of 2023. In addition to the already mentioned Madrid, Catalonia and the Valencian Community, remote working is also on the rise in the Basque Country, Andalusia, Aragon, Cantabria, Navarra, the Region of Murcia, La Rioja, Castile and Leon, Extremadura and Castile-La Mancha.
The Basque case stands out, which has accumulated seven consecutive quarters of increases and is just below the national average with 13.1% of teleworkers (+1.3 percentage points year-on-year). On the other hand, three communities show a decrease: Asturias, Galicia and the Canary Islands.
A year ago, there were six regions where less than 9% of employed people worked remotely, and there are only three regions in this situation. Last is the Balearic Islands, which drops three places, with 8.6%, followed by Extremadura, which also drops three places from fifth position at the bottom, with 8.8%; and Castile and Leon, which also drops three places from sixth position, with 8.9%.
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