Despite some employers mandating a return to the office (RTO), hybrid working has continued to gradually increase, according to official data.
Higher earners, those with more qualifications, and people who live in less deprived areas were most likely to have said they had worked both from home and from the workplace in the past week.
Hybrid working
Fewer workers would comply with a return-to-office mandate
Figures from the Office for National Statistics’ Opinions and Lifestyle Survey showed that 28% of working adults in Great Britain had hybrid worked between January and March 2025.
The proportion has gradually risen since March 2022, and the number of people who “only travel to work” (44%) has declined. Fourteen per cent only worked from home.
For working adults educated to degree level, 18% worked from home, 41% hybrid worked, and only 27% travelled to work.
People on salaries over £50,000 are also more likely to work hybrid (45%), with only one in five (20%) travelling to only to work. Less than a quarter (23%) of people earning £20-30k are hybrid workers, with 52% of people in this salary bracket being tied to the workplace.
Employees (30%) were more likely to hybrid work than self-employed workers (24%), although working from home only was more common for self-employed workers than for employees.
Hybrid work was more common among full-time workers (34%) than adults in part-time jobs (18%).
The research also found that disabled workers (24%) were less likely than non-disabled workers (29%) to hybrid work between January and March 2025.
However, disabled workers were still less likely to hybrid work in several occupations where this working pattern was most common. For example, workers were most likely to hybrid work in the “managers, directors and senior officials” occupation. However, only around a third (30%) of disabled workers hybrid worked in this occupation, compared with 48% for non-disabled workers.
Rebecca Florisson, principal analyst of the Work Foundation at Lancaster University, said that while hybrid and remote working was heralded as bringing in a new dawn of flexible and inclusive work, today’s data shows it is out of reach for many.
“At a time when the government is trying to increase the number of disabled people in the workforce, they must work with employers to make hybrid and remote accessible to more people. A recent Department for Work and Pensions study showed that a quarter of those out of work and claiming health and disability benefits state they might be able to work if they could do so remotely.”
She cited Lancaster University’s recent study of disabled workers’ experiences of remote and hybrid work, which found that 85% of disabled workers stated that some working from home would be essential when looking for a new job.
“The demand for remote and flexible work continues to grow, and yet our study shows that job listings with hybrid options are plateauing and those with remote options are declining to almost pre-pandemic levels. To meet its aim of raising the labour market participation rate to 80%, the government should work with employers to provide access to flexible and inclusive working for those who are currently missing out.”
Phoenix Group’s director of Phoenix Insights, Catherine Foot, said the figures reaffirm the significant role flexible working has in the modern workforce.
“Today’s data shows that hybrid working is increasingly becoming the norm, with more than a quarter of the UK workforce doing so. This is particularly true for workers over 30, parents, and professionals in industries where remote work is feasible.
“Recent research carried out by Phoenix Group has found that more than half (53%) of workers said they would look for a new job if their current employer limited their ability to work flexible hours, while 47% said they would look for a new job if their employer refused to let them work from home.”
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