Job adverts for hybrid working hit record high as experts say 'flexible' lifestyles are now the mainstream - despite concerns about impact on productivity

A record number of job adverts now offer 'hybrid' working that splits time between home and the office, figures show.

Around 22 per cent of roles being advertised in the first two weeks of July included the ability to work remotely for at least part of the week.

Experts said the research shows that so-called 'flexible' lifestyles are now 'mainstream' four years after pandemic lockdowns - despite worries that it makes employees less productive.

There are also concerns that staff - especially those early in their career - are losing vital social and relationship-building tools.

Before the pandemic just one per cent of ads specified that they offered a hybrid work pattern, according to the analysis from job search engine Adzuna, which supplies research to the Office for National Statistics.

Home working is likely to get even more entrenched as the Government's new Employment Rights Bill, announced in the King's Speech, will ensure that employees will have the ability to work from home for part of the week from day one of their contract.

James Neave, head of data science at Adzuna, said: 'The proportion of vacancies offering hybrid working is at an all-time high, with more than one in five advertised job ads in the UK in July 2024 specifying a hybrid option - cementing its position as the new standard of working.

'This is in stark contrast to pre-pandemic 2019 levels (which were less than one per cent) and shows how more and more companies are understanding the importance of hybrid working for hiring and retention of staff.'

However, Neave added that the proportion of vacancies offering pure remote working has steadily declined since early 2022 and dropped by over 60 per cent from that period.

Reaching a peak of 14 per cent in February 2021, the number of adverts that specify a job will never require going to the office stood at just five per cent in early July.

The Adzuna research tracked the number of job adverts that explicitly stated working from home was an option, meaning that it might be offered by more.

Charlie Mullins, founder of Pimlico Plumbers, said: 'Businesses can't run productively when their people don't come into the office and team up with colleagues, exchange ideas and bounce off each other.

'The longer we go on with this idea that staff can be part of a company and also be sitting at home is not healthy.

'For some workers it might work. But for the vast majority it's less productive and is having a massive impact on people's mental health.

'Business owners need to be able to rely on their people being present in the office or workplace, and until we accept that we are on a downward slide.

John Longworth, former director of the British Chambers of Commerce, said: 'Employers know working from home is popular but also how essential personal interaction is for developing young people, creative ideas, interactive working and many jobs cannot be done remotely.

'Only the public sector is doggedly hanging on to home working which is why their productivity has crashed at the expense of tax payers and the economy.'

The Mail on Sunday revealed last year that almost half of civil servants were primarily working from home.