Unlocked Potential: Work-from-Home Job Postings in 20 OECD Countries

Abstract

Starting from over 1.2 billion job postings, we construct and make publicly available a novel dataset on postings advertising work from home (WFH) in 20 countries and 55 occupational categories from January 2019 to September 2022. We document three stylized facts. First, in the average country, WFH surged during the pandemic but declined only marginally as the pandemic receded. Second, across countries, increases in WFH were more pronounced where mobility restrictions were more severe. Third, across occupations, the shift toward WFH was concentrated in occupations where WFH was technically and organizationally feasible even before the pandemic.