According to the Office of National Statistics, there are now 2.2 people working from home in the UK. That’s 7.4% of the workforce, and a rise of over 65% in the last four years. This increase can be attributed to improvements in ICT.
Around two thirds of teleworkers are men. The statisticians attribute this to the high proportion (43%) of self-employed people among teleworkers. The self-employed make up only 11% of the whole workforce, and three quarers of them are men.
Teleworking is slightly more common in the UK than the European average. It is most popular in Finland.
The report anticipates teleworking to grow, for two reasons. Communications technology is expected to improve still further, and more people who could already work frmo home are exected to take the oppoprtunity.