Only 2.7% of people in employment in Italy worked mainly from home in 2025. The figure, published by Eurostat, confirms that the long tail of the pandemic has come to an end and brings remote working back down to minimal levels.
The European comparison is stark: the gap with Northern countries is wide and also growing compared with similar neighbouring economies. The decline in remote work in Italy is not just a statistic; it affects company organisation, work–life balance, commuting patterns and even housing choices.
What the Eurostat 2025 data says
Eurostat’s figures show a clear drop in remote work in Italy. In 2025, 2.7% of workers usually worked from home, one of the lowest shares in Europe. The country sits near the bottom with only Greece (2.3%) and Bulgaria (1.4%) ranking lower.
- At the top of the ranking is Finland with 20.5%, followed by Ireland with 19.2%.
- Among the larger economies, Germany stands at 13% and France at 11%, while the Netherlands records 11.3%.
- Spain, often used as a comparison because of its economic structure, reaches 7.9%.
The picture highlights a double gap, both with the Nordic leaders and with countries similar in size and productive structure. It points to a specific post-pandemic trend in the Italian labour market, where physical presence has returned to centre stage.
One methodological detail is often overlooked: the data counts those who work mainly from home. Hybrid arrangements with just a few remote days each month may not be fully captured.
Why remote work is declining in Italy
The health crisis made large-scale remote working unavoidable. Once restrictions were lifted, many companies recalibrated their processes and shifted back towards prioritising the office.
Physical presence is often seen as useful for direct team collaboration, onboarding new staff and coordinating complex projects. In several business contexts, proximity has been viewed as a way to speed up decision-making and reduce information gaps.
This is not a uniform return to the past. A hybrid model has spread, alternating office and home days, adjusted according to role and seasonal workloads. However, because statistics focus on those who work primarily remotely, the growth of mixed arrangements does not translate into a higher share of “home-based” workers. The result is a sharper drop in Italy than in other countries.
Where in-person oversight is prioritised and processes are less digitalised, operational flexibility tends to shrink. By contrast, ecosystems used to managing distributed projects and advanced digital tools show greater resilience in maintaining remote work.
Where agile working still holds on
Remote work has not disappeared, but it has become more concentrated. According to analysis by the Politecnico di Milano Observatory, it remains strongest in large organisations, multinationals and sectors with high professional content.
Managers, digital professionals, consultants, finance specialists and advanced service providers are among those most likely to benefit from flexible arrangements.
The picture is different in small and medium-sized enterprises, which form the backbone of Italy’s productive system. In many SMEs there has been an almost total return to the office, influenced by production cycles tied to physical presence, more limited technological infrastructure and more traditional organisational practices.
Italy vs its European neighbours: a telling comparison
Comparisons with similar economies underline Italy’s outlier status. Germany stands at 13% and France at 11%, with a broader uptake of regular home working. Spain reaches 7.9%, almost three times Italy’s level.
Although production structures and regulations differ, these figures suggest that remote work is more firmly embedded elsewhere, particularly where digital processes and results-based management are more mature.
In Italy, alongside cultural factors, sector composition and average company size also play a role. The significant weight of manufacturing and high-interaction service activities naturally limits the potential share of predominantly remote work. The key issue, however, remains organisation: where supply chains are digitalised and asynchronous collaboration is integrated, flexibility holds up better, even within the same sector.
The impact on cities, commuting and offices
More physical presence means more commuting, with consequences for traffic, demand for public transport and individual travel costs. In metropolitan areas, business districts are regaining central importance, and peak-hour pressure is increasing again.
In the office property market, there is a push towards reusing and reconfiguring space, with shared rooms and project-based areas. In the residential sector, the reduced spread of home working may once again favour living closer to employment hubs, lowering the appeal of homes far from well-connected centres. There is still room, however, for properties with an extra room set aside for work, especially where hybrid models remain in place.
The blind spot: how much is hybrid really worth
The key to interpreting the Eurostat data lies in the definition: it counts workers who mainly work from home. Those who spend just a few days each month working remotely may not be classified as “predominantly” home-based. This helps explain why, despite a return to the office, many organisations still retain a degree of flexibility that does not fully appear in the statistics.
To understand the real direction of travel, it will be necessary to observe how company policies and individual agreements evolve. If hybrid arrangements consolidate, the role of home working will remain visible in everyday practice, even if it does not always show up as a dominant percentage.
On the other hand, further organisational tightening would lead to an even more pronounced return to the office.
Article seen on quifinanza.it:Smart working, in Italia è quasi sparito dopo il Covid: classifica Ue del lavoro da remoto – QuiFinanza
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