Working from home has become increasingly common in the United Kingdom, particularly in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. In April 2020, almost half of workers in the UK were
compared with just 31 percent travelling to work. The subsequent easing of lockdowns since then has seen the share of people travelling to work rise and the share working from home fall. As of May 2023, almost three-quarters of UK people had travelled to work, compared with 31 percent who had worked from home.
Long-term remote working trends
Between 1998 and 2020, the
number of people who mainly worked from home increased from 2.92 million to 5.64 million, with the largest increase occurring between 2019 and 2020. As a
share of all workers, people who worked mainly from home accounted for 17.4 percent of the workforce in 2020, with South East England the
region with the highest share of home workers at 20.5 percent of its workforce. While over half of the UK's agriculture workforce regularly worked from home, only six percent of those working in the accommodation and food services sector did, highlighting a significant disparity in the
share of home workers by industry sector. Although certain industries clearly do not lend themselves well to working from home, advances in internet connectivity and communication software have made it far easier for people to telework.
Working patterns of home workers
In September 2020, it was estimated that people who worked from home in the UK
started their working days later than those who were away from home, although homeworkers also tended to work later than people away from home. In terms of working hours, remote workers who were
full-time worked on average 35.9 hours per week in 2020, compared with 12.9 hours a week for
part-time workers. The average
earnings for people who mainly worked from home was around 654 British pounds per week in 2020, although there was a significant variation when it came to the
gender of the worker. Men who worked from home earned an average of 865 pounds per week compared with women remote-workers who earned 642 pounds.
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