The number of teleworkers, people who use phones and computers to work mainly from home, has more than doubled in eight years to stand at 2.4 million in spring 2005.
October's Labour Market Trends, published today by the Office for National Statistics, says that there were 921,000 teleworkers in spring 1997 when data were first collected. They now account for 8 per cent of all workers, up from 4 per cent in 1997.
Most teleworkers - 1.8 million in 2005 - worked in different places using home as a base, whereas 603,000 worked mainly at home. The growth was strongest among those who worked in different places; they now account for 6 per cent of all workers compared with 2 per cent in 1997.
The main occupations for teleworkers were managers and senior officials (23 per cent of all teleworkers), associate professional and technical (also 23 per cent) and professional (18 per cent). Though self-employed people form a relatively small share of the workforce, the majority of teleworkers were self-employed - 62 per cent in 2005.
Teleworking was most prevalent in the East, London, South East and South West, all at around 10 per cent of all workers. It was lowest in the North East, Scotland and Northern Ireland, all at around 6 per cent.
Looking at a narrower definition of teleworkers - those who could not work without using both a phone and a computer - the numbers rose from 737,000 in 1997 to 2.1 million in 2005. Not all homeworkers use telecommunication technologies to work from home, however; those who don't are not counted as teleworkers. The total number of homeworkers was 3.1 million in 2005. Other articles this month include:
The hourly earnings distribution before and after the National Minimum Wage This article extends the analysis in the Low Pay Commission's 2005 report by comparing the wage increases before and after the introduction of the National Minimum Wage. It finds that whereas between 1992 and 1997 the hourly earnings of employees at the bottom of the distribution grew more slowly than median earnings (the point at which exactly half all employees earn more than this level and half earn less), they grew faster than the median between 1998 and 2003.
News and research items include:
- Enterprises in the UK
- Local labour market statistics
- Books and discussion papers from research institutes
*Labour Market Trends Volume 113 No 10. For subscriptions and sales, tel: 01256 357893, fax: 01256 330688. Downloadable free at http://www.statistics.gov.uk/StatBase/Product.asp?vlnk=550
BACKGROUND NOTES
An electronic version of Labour Market Trends will be downloadable on the National Statistics website at http://www.statistics.gov.uk/StatBase/Product.asp?vlnk=550
