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Hybrid Work Inidicator > Top Card > 2026-QTR 3 [UPDATE]
Indicators

Hybrid Work

Key finding: Half of U.S. employees (52%) with remote-capable jobs work in a hybrid arrangement, a figure that has held relatively steady since 2022.

Gallup tracks where U.S. employees are working (exclusively remote, hybrid or on-site) along with their preferences. Hybrid work has settled in as the clear preference and norm: six in 10 remote-capable employees want a hybrid schedule. It’s worth noting that hybrid workers report significantly better work-life balance, less burnout and higher productivity than their fully on-site peers.

What We Measure

As of May 2026, 52% of U.S. employees work in a hybrid arrangement, 26% work exclusively remote and 22% work on-site.

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Gallup's data from May 2026 show that the majority of remote-capable employees are currently working in a hybrid (52%) or exclusively remote arrangement (26%), with 22% working on-site. Expectations for long-term work locations closely mirror current working location: 52% hybrid, 25% exclusively remote and 23% on-site.

When asked in November 2025 what their preferred work location would be, 61% of remote-capable employees prefer hybrid, 33% exclusively remote and said 6% said on-site work.

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Key Insight

Employees’ current work locations don’t fully match their stated preferences. Hybrid is closely aligned (52% work it, 61% prefer it), but exclusively remote is slightly underrepresented relative to stated preference (26% work it vs. 33% preferred), and on-site is overrepresented relative to preference (22% work on-site vs. 6% who prefer it).

Remote work flexibility is associated with higher employee engagement and wellbeing. As of May 2026, exclusively remote and hybrid employees are more likely to be engaged and thriving than their on-site remote-capable counterparts, while on-site employees whose jobs are not remote-capable report the lowest engagement and thriving rates of all four groups.

 
Work arrangement % Engaged % Thriving
Exclusively remote 37 52
Hybrid 34 54
On-site (remote-capable job) 29 49
On-site (non-remote-capable job) 28 46
All U.S. employees 31 47
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Work teams that set their hybrid policy together are the most likely to say that the policy is fair and has a positive impact on collaboration, but as of May 2025, only 11% of employees benefit from this approach.

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Results for the Gallup poll of U.S. employees are based on self-administered web surveys of a random sample of adults who are aged 18 and older, working full time or part time for organizations in the United States, and members of the Gallup Panel. Gallup uses probability-based, random sampling methods to recruit its Panel members. Gallup weighted the obtained samples to correct for nonresponse. Nonresponse adjustments were made by adjusting the sample to match the national demographics of gender, age, race, Hispanic ethnicity, education and region. Demographic weighting targets were based on the most recent Current Population Survey figures for the aged 18 and older U.S. population. In addition to sampling error, question wording and practical difficulties in conducting surveys can introduce error or bias into the findings of public opinion polls.

Gallup defines “exclusively remote” as employees working from home or a remote location 100% of the time. “Hybrid” employees are those who work from home or a remote location 10% to less than 100% of the time. “On-site” employees work from home or a remote location 0% to less than 10% of the time.

In line charts on this webpage, Gallup labels some data points with a year and month. Years that have only one data point labeled with the year and "Jan" (abbreviated for "January") reflect annual survey results. Years that have one data point labeled with a specific month besides January or that have multiple data points labeled with specific months reflect results obtained during the noted month(s). When Gallup’s survey field dates for one data point occur in more than one month, Gallup labels the data point with the ending month.

The Gallup Q12 items are Gallup proprietary information and are protected by law. You may not administer a survey with the Q12 items or reproduce them without written consent from Gallup. Copyright © 1993-1998 Gallup, Inc. All rights reserved.

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