BERLIN- The proportion of German people working from home fell only slightly in April, according to a survey published on Monday, despite the country lifting remote-working requirements brought into force to combat the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Ifo economic institute said its survey of 9,000 companies showed 24.9 percent of German employees worked from home at least part of the time in April, compared with 27.6 percent the previous month.
“This means the number of people working from home remains at a high level following the abolition of the remote-working obligation on March 20,” said Jean-Victor Alipour, an Ifo expert on working from home.
“Evidently, many companies have permanently adapted to more flexible working arrangements,” he added.
Remote-working options are still most widespread in the service sector, where 35.3 percent worked from home in April, Ifo said.
The decrease was strong in Germany’s automotive industry, falling to 17.8 percent in April from 28.4 percent, it said. However, the figure fell only slightly for manufacturing overall, to 16.3 percent from 18.6 percent.
Meanehile, Germany’s finance minister warned on Monday that rising wages could further fan inflation, adding that parties involved in collective bargaining had a responsibility to help prevent that from happening and that one-off payments might be needed.
German inflation hit an annual 7.8 percent in April, the highest in more than four decades, which is expected to fuel wage demands.
