Career Outlook
A job advertised as flexible can mean several very different things. New Bureau of Labor Statistics figures released September 24 found that 57% of wage and salary workers in 2024–25 could vary the times they started and ended work. About 34%, or 51 million workers, worked at home at least occasionally, and 28% had days on which they worked only at home. The data come from the 2024–2025 Leave and Job Flexibilities Module, a supplement to the American Time Use Survey that covers workers’ sole or main job and excludes the self-employed. It describes workers’ reported experience, not the wording companies use in job ads.
Two kinds of flexibility
The distinction matters for job seekers comparing roles. Someone may work from home but still have a tightly controlled start time, or be able to change shifts without ever working remotely. Among workers who could work at home, 78% had flexible start and stop times, compared with 44% of those who could not. That gap shows how workplace arrangements cluster, but it does not mean remote work creates schedule flexibility for every employee. Among workers with flexible schedules, 36% said they could change them frequently, 45% occasionally and 19% rarely.
Reasons for working at home also vary. Among those who did, 33% said their job required it, 31% cited personal preference and 12% said it helped them coordinate with family. Women were somewhat more likely than men to work at home, 35% versus 32%.
Stepping away and knowing the schedule
The survey also offers a less visible measure of control: whether a worker can step away briefly. Sixty-nine percent said it would not be difficult to take an hour or two off during work hours. That share was 86% for workers who could work at home and 59% for those who could not. For parents and caregivers, the practical value of a role may depend more on predictable flexibility and paid leave than on a generic hybrid label. The same release found that parents living with children under 18 were more likely to work at home than other workers, 38% compared with 32%.
Advance notice is another dividing line. Fifty-nine percent of workers knew their schedule four weeks or more ahead, while 9% learned it one day or less in advance. Men were twice as likely as women to get one day’s notice or less, 12% versus 6%. Among workers 25 and older, 19% of those without a high school diploma learned their schedule a day or less ahead, compared with 7% of bachelor’s degree holders.
Questions to ask in an interview
Candidates can ask for examples instead of adjectives. How much notice is needed to change a start time? Which days must be on site? Can employees handle an appointment without using a full day of leave? Do the rules change after probation or during busy periods? If the position involves shift work, how far ahead is the schedule published? Written policies and the hiring manager’s description should agree.
Employers can improve job ads by listing those arrangements separately rather than calling every role flexible. A clear description reduces the chance of disappointed hires and makes jobs comparable across industries where on-site work is unavoidable. The survey supplies national context; the conditions of any specific opening remain employer-specific.
Sources
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, “Job Flexibilities and Work Schedules — 2024–2025,” September 24, 2026. https://www.bls.gov/news.release/flex2.nr0.htm
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, The Economics Daily, “73 percent of men and 69 percent of women had access to paid leave in 2024–25,” September 23, 2026. https://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2026/73-percent-of-men-and-69-percent-of-women-had-access-to-paid-leave-in-2024-25.htm
Featured photo: A woman works on a laptop at home. Representative image of home-based work; it does not depict survey respondents. Photo: Shixart1985, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0). Cropped from the original.
