Mark Zuckerberg says up to half of Facebook could be working remotely in 5-10 years

Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg said Thursday that he anticipates up to half of the company’s employees could be working their jobs remotely within the next five to 10 years.

Mr. Zuckerberg, Facebook’s chief executive officer, made the prediction as other Silicon Valley companies similarly plan to permanently let employees work from home even once it becomes relatively safe to return to offices that went dark due to the ongoing novel coronavirus pandemic.

“I think we’re going to be the most forward-leaning company on remote work at our scale, for sure, but we’re going to do this in a way that’s measured and thoughtful and responsible and in phases over time,” Mr. Zuckerberg said during a company town hall that he broadcast publicly through his personal Facebook page.

“As kind of a prediction for the future, I think that it’s quite possible that over the next five-to-10 years, about 50% of our people could be working remotely,” Mr. Zuckerberg continued.

Launched by Mr. Zuckerberg in 2004, Facebook currently employs close to 50,000 people working out of offices spanning several countries.

Approximately 95% of Facebook’s workforce are currently doing their jobs remotely due to the coronavirus pandemic, and employees have previously been told they can work from their home for the rest of of they year if they can do so productively, Mr. Zuckerberg added.

Companies across the board have embraced remote working in recent months as cases of COVID-19, the highly contagious and potentially deadly respiratory disease caused by the coronavirus, began appearing earlier this year in the U.S. and abroad. More than 5 million cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed worldwide since the outbreak started, and over 329,000 people have died as a result of contracting the disease, according to Johns Hopkins University.

Several tech firms have since announced that they will allow employees to permanently work remotely after the pandemic, including both Twitter and Square, among others.