Overview
- A paper published in Science on June 11 pooled five nationally representative U.S. surveys (about 588,000 people) comparing 2011–2019 with 2022–2024 while excluding 2020–2021 to estimate longer‑term effects of remote work.
- The authors report that occupations that became more remote explain roughly 30% of the overall post‑pandemic rise in population‑level psychological distress and show a small average rise in K‑6 distress scores of about 0.3 points.
- People in remote‑capable jobs spent more time alone—about 1.2 extra hours per workday on average—and had larger increases in mental‑health service use and antidepressant prescriptions than on‑site workers.
- The effects were far larger for people who live alone, whose chance of spending an entire day with no human contact rose by roughly seven percentage points, and remote workers did not make up lost workplace contact during off hours.
- Authors and commentators stress limits to the analysis—it is U.S.‑only, uses occupation‑level remotability (not individual choices), cannot fully separate hybrid from fully remote work, and documents association rather than causation—so they recommend employer fixes such as coordinated hybrid schedules, set in‑office days, coworking supports, and targeted help for those living alone.