7.9% of employed Brazilians did most of their work from home in 2025, according to figures released on Wednesday by the IBGE, Brazil's national statistics agency. That adds up to 6.6 million people aged 14 and over, about the population of the city of Rio de Janeiro. The share sits above the pre-pandemic level of 5.8% recorded in 2019.
In practical terms, in a team of 100 people, eight now spend most of the week working from home. In 2019, before Covid-19, it was six out of 100, and when the survey series began in 2012 it was fewer than four (3.6%). The level was stable compared with 2024, Folha de S.Paulo reports.
Work from home peaked at 8.4% in 2022 and has slipped since. The share working at a fixed company location rose from 57.9% in 2022 to 60.2% in 2025, according to news site g1, while other workers are spread across sites set by employers or clients (13.8%), farms and ranches (8.4%), motor vehicles (5%) and streets or public areas (2.1%).
What it means: the PNAD Contínua is Brazil's main employment survey; IBGE interviewers visit thousands of households every month, and the annual module released this week asks where each person works most often. Under that rule, a hybrid worker with three days at home and two at the office counts as remote. The module was not collected in 2020 or 2021, at the height of the pandemic, so the true peak of remote work cannot be measured.
Where remote work is strongest
The state map shows sharp contrasts. Ceará (10.7%), the Federal District (10.6%) and Rio de Janeiro state (10.1%) all top 10% of the workforce at home. At the other end, Acre (3.6%), Rondônia (4.1%) and Mato Grosso (4.5%) stay below 5%, and São Paulo state sits at 8.1%, close to the national average.
Among state capitals the gap is wider. Porto Alegre leads with 18.7% of workers at home, nearly one in five. Porto Velho has the lowest rate, 4.2%, and the city of São Paulo stands at 9.3%, Folha reports.
The return to the office
Other surveys cited by g1 show that the return to on-site work has largely been a company decision. In a survey by WeWork with Offerwise, 63% of workers are on site, and 79% of them follow the model because the company requires it. The commute is the top complaint: 65% name the trip as the main drawback, and more than half say they spend more on transport since going back.
WeWork Brasil business manager Beatriz Kawakami calls this a "silent cost": it does not show up on a pay slip, but it eats into free time and household budgets. Fully remote job postings have also lost ground on hiring platforms, according to recruitment firm Gupy, while on-site and hybrid openings dominate. In construction and engineering, workers average 4.8 days per week on site, against 3.3 in services, says consultancy Robert Half.