Trends in teleworking in the UK since 1997
New Journal
From 1997 to 2005 we kept a watching brief on the results of the UK Labour Force Survey and what they can tell us about teleworking. The relevant questions are normally asked in the Spring and the results released by the Office of National Statistics in the Summer of each year. For the latest headline figures you can visit their website at http://www.statistics.gov.uk/
Below you will find some analysis from selected previous years.
Key findings on feleworkers from the Spring 1997 Labour Force Survey
- teleworkers were defined as people who: work in their own home or use their home as a base; have worked at least one full day at home in the reference week and used a telephone and computer for the work done at home.
- there were around 987,000 people who were teleworkers in their main job in Great Britain;
- around 70% of these were male;
- teleworkers made up around 4% of all in employment (excluding those on Government Schemes);
- around a third of all people who were teleworkers in their main job worked in the Banking, Finance and Insurance sector;
- around one in six people who were teleworkers in their main job worked in Public Administration, Education and Health;
- almost 70% of people who were teleworkers in their main job were in three occupational groups -. Managers and Administrators; Professionals; and Associate Professional occupations.
Key findings on teleworkers from fhe Spring 1998 LFS
By 1998, the percentage of the UK workforce which fell under this definition had increased to 5%
Source : ONS Analysis
- There were approximately a quarter of a million teleworker homeworkers in spring 1998 of whom half worked part-time (66 per cent of them women and 29 per cent of the men)
- Teleworker homeworkers were split roughly equally between men and women. The other types of teleworker were predominantly male (80 per cent of home-based and 70 per cent of occasional teleworker were men).
- Whereas female teleworker homeworkers were split evenly between employees and self-employed, men were predominantly self-employed (70 per cent).
- Nine out of ten men and six out of ten women who were home-based teleworkers were working full-time.
- Compared with the other two types of teleworkers home-based teleworkers were distributed far more evenly across the different occupation groups. A quarter of male home-based teleworkers worked in the craft and related occupations group (this group was very small for other teleworker types). Two-thirds of these men were employed in the construction industry, in trades such as plastering, joinery installation and glazing, for whom any teleworking is likely to be only a minor part of their main job.
- Unlike the other teleworking groups, occasional teleworkers were predominantly employees (80 per cent). They were also overwhelmingly full-time workers (90 per cent).
- Nearly nine out of ten occasional teleworkers were classified in the first three occupation groups listed.
Key Findings on Teleworkers From The Spring 1999 LFS
By 1999, numbers had leaped again, to a total of 1,325,000. Of these, 255,000 worked at home, 693,000 used their homes as a base and 357,000 worked occasionally from their homes.
Source : ONS Analysis
More detailed analysis of LFS 1999 results
We have carried out a much more detailed analysis of these figures. Below is a summary of the results from the March to May Quarter of the 1998 UK Labour Force Survey. The text is copyright material extracted from Teleworking and Globalisation, a study by Ursula Huws, Nick Jagger and Siobhan O'Regan published in 1999 by the Institute for Employment Studies who should be acknowledged in any quotation of these results.
The definition of a teleworker was constructed as follows:
Respondents who had indicated, either
were asked 'Do you use a telephone and computer for work at home?'
- that they were regular homeworkers - i.e. they mainly work at home or they work in different places but use home as a base, or
- that they were occasional homeworkers - i.e. they had spent at least one full day in the reference week working at home or using their home as a base
Those answering positively to this question constituted 5% of the workforce of whom 68% were male and 32% were female.
It is possible, however, that some of these were people for whom the combination of a computer and a telephone link were not essential prerequisites for their work but optional extras, perhaps only used occasionally. Accordingly a further filter was applied, in the form of the additional question, 'Would it be possible to work at home (or use home as a base) without using both a telephone and a computer?'. The addition of this question also makes it possible to triangulate the results with those of the Teleworking in Britain survey, in which we used the same definition.The exclusion of those answering 'no' to this question reduces the overall proportion of teleworkers in the working population to 4%, of whom 70% are male and 30% female.
The over-representation of men (who make up only 56% of the total UK workforce) in the teleworking workforce is interesting, especially in the light of stereotyped views that teleworking is especially suitable for women because of their domestic responsibilities. However a more detailed analysis of the location in which the work takes place reveals a more traditional pattern, as can be seen from Table 1.
Table 1: Work Location of UK Teleworkers by Gender, % of Teleworkers
Place of Work All % Male % Female % All Own home Same grounds or building Different places with home as base Separate from home
Source: UK Labour Force Survey, 1998, analysis by Siobhan O'Regan and Ursula Huws
From this analysis it can be seen that while the proportion of men and women working from separate premises adjacent to the home is about the same (at 25% and 24% respectively). There are major gender differences between those who work at home and those who work from their homes. Forty one per cent of female teleworkers work at home, compared with only 15% of their male counterparts, whilst over half the male teleworkers (51%) use their homes as a base but work in a variety of locations. Only a small proportion (1% of male and 2% of female teleworkers) have a separate work-space on the same grounds or in another part of the same building as their home.
Turning to the demographic characteristics of teleworkers, we find an age distribution somewhat skewed to the mid-career period. Only 2% of teleworkers are in the 16-24 age-bracket (compared with 14% in the whole workforce), and only 12% aged 55-64 (with a further 3% aged 65 or over). Nearly a third (32%) are aged 35-44 (compared with 25% of all workers) with a further 29% aged 45-54 (here, the comparable figure for the total workforce is 22%). The 25-34 age-band accounts for 22% of teleworkers and 26% of all workers.
Nearly three-quarters of teleworkers (73%) are married or living with a partner, compared with only 58% in the workforce at large, with 18% who have always been single (compared with 31% of all workers) and a further 9% who are separated, divorced or widowed. Nine per cent of these teleworkers have children under the age of two, 12% have children aged between two and four, 19% have children aged between five and nine and 21% have children aged between ten and fifteen. In each case these proportions are very slightly higher than in the general population, but never more than a single percentage point higher. Given the fact that teleworkers are much more likely to be married than non-teleworkers and are also more likely to be in their thirties and forties, this difference is very slight, and it would be difficult to use these statistics to support an argument that teleworking results from a life-style choice to put family before work.
We also examined the hours worked by these teleworkers and discovered that over three quarters (77%) are working full time, with the remaining 23% classified as part-time workers. As expected, female teleworkers are more likely to work part-time than their male counterparts, with nearly half - 47% - working part-time, compared with only 12% of male teleworkers.
Turning to employment status, we find a more even balance. Just over half of all teleworkers (52%) are employees, with 47% classified as self-employed and the remaining 1% as paid family workers. The proportion of male teleworkers who are self-employed is, at 49%, somewhat higher than the 42% of women who are classified in this way, but not enormously so. There are clearly substantial numbers both of men and of women working as teleworkers both as employees and on their own account. It is possible that some of the self-employed teleworkers might fall into the category of 'pseudo-self-employed' workers, that is people who might be deemed to be employed if their case were tested in law (for instance if they are dependent for work on a single employer under whose direction they carry out). Whether this is the case could only be ascertained in the light of qualitative research.Nine per cent of teleworkers are disabled, roughly the same proportion as in the workforce as a whole. A breakdown of the sample by type of disability reveals no significant differences between teleworkers and the rest of the working population.
The sectoral and occupational distribution of UK teleworkers are presented in tables 2 and 3.
Table 2: Sectoral Distribution of UK Teleworkers compared with Total Workforce, %
Sector % of total workforce % of teleworkers Agriculture and fishing 2 2 Energy and water 1 1 Manufacturing 19 14 Construction 7 11 Distribution, hotels & restaurants 20 10 Transport & communication 7 4 Banking, finance, insurance and business services 15 34 Public administration, education & health 24 14 Other services 6 9 Total services 71 72 Source: UK Labour Force Survey, 1998, analysis by Siobhan O'Regan and Ursula Huws
A comparison of the sectoral breakdown of the teleworking workforce with that of the total workforce is not, perhaps as striking as it could be. The proportion working in service industries taken as a whole, at 72% is almost identical to the 71% of the whole UK workforce in this sector. Similarly, the same proportion are to be found in the primary and energy sectors.
The proportions in manufacturing, transport and distribution, hotels and catering are somewhat lower, not surprisingly in view of the undelocalisable nature of much of the work in these sectors. However the main contrast is in the much higher proportion of teleworkers working in the banking, finance, insurance and business services sector. This sector alone accounts for over a third (34%) of teleworkers, compared with only 15% of the total workforce. The public sector, by contrast, which accounts for nearly a quarter of all workers, accounts for only 14% of teleworkers, despite including a high proportion of workers whose jobs involve processing information (as well as many, admittedly, such as those in health care and education, whose jobs require a face-to-face presence). Apart from the finance and business services sector, the only sectors in which teleworkers are over-represented compared with the general population are 'other services' and 'construction'. We must presume that this latter category includes a number of people (including architects and engineers as well as self-employed building contractors) who are multi-locational workers using their homes as a base.
Table 3: Occupational Distribution of UK Teleworkers compared with Total Workforce, %
Occupational category % of total workforce % of teleworkers Managers and administrators 16 26 Professional occupations 10 23 Associate professional & technical occupations 10 18 Clerical, secretarial occupations 15 9 Craft and related occupations 12 12 Personal, protective occupations 11 1 Sales occupations 8 8 Plant and machine operatives 9 1 Other occupations 8 1 Source: UK Labour Force Survey, 1998, analysis by Siobhan O'Regan and Ursula Huws
We must turn to the occupational breakdown to get a better sense of what kind of work these teleworkers are actually doing. Table 3 shows us that here there are substantial differences. Teleworkers are more than twice as likely (at 23% compared with 10%) than other workers to be in professional occupations, and considerably more likely (at 26% compared with 16%) to be managers and associate professional or technical staff (at 18% compared with 10%). Surprisingly, in view of the intensive use of IT in much of this kind of work, secretarial and clerical occupations are under-represented among teleworkers (at 9% compared with 15% in the total workforce), whilst the proportions of teleworkers in craft and sales occupations are the same as amongst other workers. It is likely, however, that this broad category conceals major differences in the kinds of task involved. Teleworking sales staff are likely to be either travelling sales representatives or tele-sales personnel, whilst their non-teleworking counterparts are more likely to be shop assistants, although some staff in outgoing call centres would also be categorised as non-teleworkers under the definition used in this analysis. Finally, and unsurprisingly, there are extremely low proportions of teleworkers amongst people in personal and protective occupations and among plant and machinery operatives - occupations which generally speaking do not depend on the use of computers and telephones and which, in many cases, require face-to-face interaction with customers, or the operation of machines which are located in factories or other outside workplaces.
Taken together, these results suggest that the propensity to be a teleworker is not associated strongly with any unusual demographic features or types of work. On the contrary, teleworkers seem to share most of the characteristics of the rest of the workforce. Apart from a somewhat greater propensity to be married, with children and in mid-career than other workers, their remote location seems to be the only feature which distinguishes them strongly from those who work on-site. The occupations in which teleworkers are over-represented appear on the whole to correlate quite logically with those with the greatest propensity to make extensive use of ICTs in combination with a certain minimal level of autonomy.
(from an IES press release)
Around a quarter of a million British people joined the teleworking workforce in 2000, an increase of 19%.
In Spring 1999, approximately 1.2 million people worked from home in the UK at least one day per week in their main job using a computer and a telephone link to the employer or client. A year later, this had increased to 1.5 million, representing 5.5% of the those in employment.
The definition used here covers only people who are dependent on a computer and telecommunications link to work from home. Using a broader definition (i.e. those who use the technology but could work in this way without it) brings the total up to over 1.8 million, representing 7% of the those in employment.
In the words of Ursula Huws, Associate Fellow of IES, 'With one British worker in seventeen now using the new technology to work from home, teleworking is reaching critical mass. The time has come for some joined-up thinking about the implications of this development for housing policy, transport policy, employment policy and the quality of individual working experience and family life. If teleworking continues to expand in a piecemeal fashion there is a real danger of some sections of society being left out'.
Who are the teleworkers?
What are the trends?
- Seven out of ten teleworkers (69%) are men, despite the fact that men make up little more than half (56%) of those in employment. Women are more likely to be working at home, whilst men are more likely to be work from several different locations, using the home as a base.
- Over a quarter of all teleworkers (27%) work in the business services sectors with another 25% in the public and voluntary sectors
- Most teleworkers are in senior jobs: 28% are managers, 22% are professionals and 18% are in associate professional or technical occupations.
- Compared with the rest of the working population, teleworkers are more likely to be graduates, to be married and to be in mid-career (in their thirties or forties)
- The increase in teleworking in the past year has been proportionally greater among women (at 24%) than men (at 17%)
- The fastest-expanding teleworking occupation is management, with an increase of 25% in managers working from home
- Growth has been especially strong in the financial services sector which has seen an increase of 34% in teleworking.
- Despite an overall decline of 1% in the numbers of clerical workers in the British workforce, there has been a 12% increase in clerical teleworking
- The 21% increase in working at home has been somewhat greater than that in multi-locational working from a home base, which increased by 15% over the year.
- Teleworking is increasing more rapidly amongst employees (at 22%) than the self-employed (at 15%). The self-employed now make up only 44% of teleworkers, compared with 46% in 1999 and 48% in 1998. This is in line with the general decline in self-employment in the United Kingdom, which fell by 2.3% in a year in which employment as a whole grew by 1.3%.
2004 Results
(Analysis by Ursula Huws and Peter Bates)
Introduction
Since 1997, the UK Labour Force Survey has collected data that enable us to define teleworking in accordance with the dimensions outlined above. The typology adopted by the UK’s Office of National Statistics draws a distinction between those working from home and those working from several locations but using home as a base; it also separates out the regular teleworkers from the occasional ones:
This typology was also used in the EMERGENCE project to derive estimates of eWorkers across the EU (for more information go to http://www.emergence.nu) .
- Telehomeworkers — These are people who usually work from home with the support of a computer with a telecommunications link, and require this equipment in order to perform their job.
- Multilocational eWorkers — These are people who usually work from multiple locations using home as a base, and who require the support of a computer with a telecommunications link in order to perform their job.
- Occasional teleworkers — These are people who do not normally work from home, or use home as a base, but have done so in the week preceding the survey; they also require the support of a computer with a telecommunications link.
- In addition to the three categories described above, a fourth category can be defined: people who use ICT to work from home, or use home as a base, but do not require this technology, may be defined as ‘e-enabled homeworkers’. The remainder of this article will make a distinction between the three main groups of teleworkers outlined above.
Results
In Spring 2004, according to the Labour Force Survey over 2.3 million people in the UK used ICT to work from home, or from multiple locations using home as a base; this represents 8.1 per cent of total UK employment . Approximately 1.9 million of these workers (6.9 per cent of those employed) can be defined as teleworkers.
When considering the different forms of teleworking, we can see that the common stereotype of a teleworker, as someone who spends most of their time working at home using ICT, still represents a minority among those engaged in this activity. Indeed, the largest group of teleworkers are the Multilocational eWorkers (accounting for nearly half, 46.0 per cent, of all teleworkers), followed by Occasional Teleworkers, who account for 31.3 per cent of all teleworkers.
Characteristics of teleworkers
Patterns of teleworking are very much dependent upon the economic status of those employed. Around six out of ten Telehomeworkers and Multilocational eWorkers are self-employed individuals. However, among Occasional Teleworkers the proportion of those who are self-employed is considerably lower, and more closely reflects the proportion of self-employed workers in the workforce as a whole, ie 15.9 per cent of Occasional Teleworkers are self-employed, compared to 12.8 per cent self-employment among all workers.
Nearly 80 per cent of teleworkers and e-enabled homeworkers are engaged in full-time employment; among non-teleworkers the proportion is closer to three-quarters of those employed . However, teleworkers form a very heterogeneous group of workers, and while Occasional Teleworkers are almost universally likely to be full-timers (90.1 per cent) the proportion of full-time workers among Telehomeworkers is nearer to one-half (54.7 per cent).
Around three-quarters of those teleworking (73 per cent) are from the managerial, professional and associate professional/technical occupations. In the case of Telehomeworkers and
Multilocational eWorkers this may partly be predictable, given the proportion of self-employed workers among these groups. However, the dominance of managerial and professional occupations among occasional teleworkers is more likely to be a reflection of the increased capability of these occupational groups to work outside their office environment, either during standard working hours, eg flexible working arrangements, or through out-of-office overtime, ie ‘taking work home’.
One-third of all teleworkers (32.7 per cent) are employed in the ‘Business and Finance’ sector, while a further one-quarter (23.7 per cent) are employed in ‘Other Private Sector Services’ (comprising transport and communication, distribution, and hotel and catering). Of the remainder, another one-quarter (25.4 percent) work in the ‘Primary and Production Sectors’ (agriculture, energy, manufacturing and construction) and just under one-fifth (18.1 per cent) are engaged in ‘Public Administration’. Relative to the distribution of employment across sectors in the workforce as a whole, teleworkers were more than twice as likely as non-teleworkers to be employed in Business and Finance, but were around 50 per cent less likely to be employed in Public Administration. Once again, there were some clear differences between the different groups of teleworkers, with over one-third (34.7 per cent) of Occasional Teleworkers employed in Public Administration.
Teleworking in the UK is dominated by men, who account for nearly two-thirds of all teleworkers. However, these figures mask a considerable variation in the sex distribution among different forms of teleworkers. Although men account for nearly eight out of ten Multilocational eWorkers (77.1 per cent), and two-thirds of the Occasional Teleworkers (65.0 per cent) they represent a minority among Telehomeworkers (43.7 per cent). One explanation for this is that women are more likely to take up regular telehomeworking as a means of balancing their work with their commitments to look after dependent young children.
Teleworkers are generally older than their non-teleworking counterparts. While one in six workers in the UK are between the ages of 16 and 25, among teleworkers, the proportion is closer to one in every 40. At the other end of the age spectrum, nearly one-half (45.6 per cent) of teleworkers are over the age of 45, compared to one-third (34.9 per cent) of all workers. The older age profile of teleworkers can be explained by their activity. As we have seen, teleworkers are more likely than their non-teleworking counterparts to be engaged in self-employment or to work as managers or senior officials. These are groups that tend to be disproportionately dominated by older workers. It can also be surmised that teleworking can only be successfully carried out by people who have already developed the skills and experience to work without supervision.
Teleworking is often actively promoted as a means to promote social inclusion, especially to provide opportunities for disabled people to enter employment when other traditional forms of employment prove restrictive. Disabled people can be defined in three different ways in this survey:
Overall, teleworkers were only marginally more likely to be disabled. 14.6 per cent of teleworkers were disabled (compared to 13.1 per cent of those who were not teleworkers). However, Telehomeworkers had the highest proportion of disabled workers, and were over one-fifth (22.1 per cent) more likely than non-teleworkers to be disabled, at 16 per cent compared to 13.1 per cent. When we consider those who were classified as being both within the DDA and work-limiting definitions of disability, Telehomeworkers were over one-third (35.1 per cent) more likely than their non-teleworking counterparts to report being disabled.
- Those with an illness or impairment that falls within the UK’s Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) 1995, ie ‘'a physical or mental impairment which has a substantial and long-term adverse effect on the ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities’.
- Those with an illness or impairment that affects the ability of an individual to carry out paid work, or affect the amount of paid work they can do.
- Those with an impairment that falls within the DDA definition of disability and affects an individual’s ability to do paid work.
On the whole, teleworkers are very well educated . While one-fifth of the working population in the UK have a degree or equivalent qualification, among teleworkers that proportion is closer to two-fifths (38.3 per cent). Perhaps reflecting the occupational bias of teleworkers, over half (52.1 per cent) of occasional teleworkers have degrees or equivalent qualifications. Conversely, while around one in ten of the working population has no qualifications, among teleworkers the proportion is less than one in every 25, and among Occasional Teleworkers only around one in every 50 r