New CSO data released on 20 August 2026 shows that 990,600 people in Ireland, 34.9% of everyone in employment, usually or sometimes worked from home in Q2 2026. That’s down slightly on Q1’s 35.4%, but well inside the stable range of remote and hybrid work levels that we’ve seen over the last 4yrs since 2022.
What the CSO data actually shows
What changed after the pandemic was who works from home, not how many. Fully remote work is down 316,900 people since the 2021 Q1 peak, while hybrid, sometimes-at-home work is up 314,900, an almost exact swap. That swap is largely finished. Most of it happened before 2023, and the mix has barely moved since.
Since 2022, the combined figure has settled into a repeating pattern: a bounce in Q1, a gentle decline through the year, landing somewhere between 33% and 37% of everyone in employment. Q2 2026 sits right where you’d expect: down 0.5 percentage points on the quarter, down 1.1 on the year, down 9.0 from the 2021 peak, and still close to double the pre pandemic baseline of 20.3% in 2019.
Explore our more detailed breakdown, including data and methodology on the quarterly series going back to 2021 here 
Grow Remote micro site for CSO Labour Force Survey Q2 2026 Data: https://bit.ly/grcsolf26q2
Here is what concerns us more than a 0.5 point quarterly wobble: there is still a spotlight on whether the percentage went up or down, rather than a conversation about what we’re doing to make remote and hybrid work, work better for more employers and employees, in more places across the country, across more of the Irish economy.
At roughly 35% of the workforce, Ireland has built something significant. But there is still no national target for remote employment, no delivery mechanism to grow the number of remote jobs available outside our cities, and no systematic support for the SMEs who want to make the transition but don’t know where to start.
The opportunity that Ireland has created for itself (though hard work).
The Q2 2026 figures are a data point that validates the opportunity we have in front of us. Nearly one million people working this way, in a normal year rather than a pandemic one, is something to build on – it is a generational social, economic and environmental opportunity that we can not afford to miss..
That is exactly why we’ve just published our Pre-Budget Submission 2027, Consolidating Remote Work in Ireland’s Economic and Social Future. It sets out four asks for government and stakeholders:
- Consolidate Ireland as a leader in remote work and increase the supply of jobs, through a national remote jobs target and a dedicated unit to attract distributed employers.
- Empower employers to compete and be productive, through a funded National Remote Work Skills Training Plan for managers and employees.
- Harness remote work for our communities, through sustained investment in local, volunteer led programming that connects remote workers to the places they live.
- Build the national data infrastructure for remote work policy, so decisions can be made on evidence rather than guesswork.
Read the full submission here: https://canva.link/dc2mfibom4165x3
Whether you’re a business leader responsible for your companies competitiveness and productivity, or an individual who wants to thrive as a remote team leader or team member, we are here to solve the challenges of remote.
Explore our employer training programmes here: https://growremote.ie/lead-from-anywhere
Contact Ciara to discuss a group of 20+ tailored for and exclusive to your team: ciara@growremote.ie
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Contact Victoria to discuss volunteer opportunities and join her next local leader info session: victoria@growremote.ie
Featured Image: Photo by Vitaly Gariev on Unsplash
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About Grow Remote: Our mission is to solve the challenges of remote work in order to unlock social, economic and environmental change for individuals, employers and local communities.
The post Beyond the headlines: Nearly 1 million people work from home usually or sometimes in Ireland and its stable. appeared first on Grow Remote.
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