WASHINGTON — The Bureau of Labor Statistics released its annual Job Flexibilities and Work Schedules survey on Sept. 24, providing the definitive federal data on remote work access, flexible scheduling and alternative work arrangements across the American workforce.
The report covers remote and hybrid work usage rates, flexible scheduling arrangements, shift work prevalence and other alternative work patterns, according to BLS. It serves as the official government benchmark on the state of workplace flexibility in the United States.
The data release arrives amid ongoing national debates over return-to-office mandates, hybrid work policies and the future of the American workplace. Federal agencies have implemented their own return-to-office requirements, while private employers continue to navigate competing demands from workers who want flexibility and managers who prefer in-person collaboration.
The BLS survey supersedes employer and employee estimates from private research firms, providing the most authoritative count of who is actually working remotely and how often. The data covers the full U.S. workforce, including workers who lack access to remote options — a distinction often missing from private-sector surveys focused on white-collar knowledge workers.
Year-over-year trend data from the survey is particularly significant. Whether remote work is stabilizing, expanding or contracting as a share of total work arrangements has implications for commercial real estate markets, transportation infrastructure, urban economies and employer benefits policies.
The report also captures disparities in flexibility access across industries, occupations and demographic groups. Workers in lower-wage service industries typically have far less access to flexible scheduling than their higher-paid counterparts in professional occupations.
For policymakers, the data informs decisions about transportation funding, broadband infrastructure investment and tax policies related to home offices and commuting. The BLS releases the survey annually, making the 2026 data comparable to prior years.