1、 Telework in the EU before and after the COVID-19: where we were, where we head to Since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic working from home has become the norm for millions of workers in the EU and worldwide. Early estimates from Eurofound (2020) suggest that close to 40% of those currently wor
2、king in the EU began to telework fulltime as a result of the pandemic. A recent JRC study provides a rough estimation of around 25% of employment in teleworkable sectors in the EU as a whole. Considering that before the outbreak just 15% of the employed in the EU had ever teleworked, large numbers o
3、f workers and employers alike are, in all probability, facing challenges in dealing with the sudden shift to telework. The extent of these difficulties, however, is likely to vary considerably, depending among other factors on the level of prior experience with telework. In its recent communication
4、on the 2020 country-specific recommendations the Commission highlights the important role of telework in preserving jobs and production in the context of the Covid-19 crisis. Against this backdrop, this brief discusses the challenges that countries, employers and workers are facing in adapting to th
5、e new work-from-home environment, on the basis of pre-outbreak trends in the prevalence of telework across EU countries, sectors and occupations. In particular, what follows tries to answer to the following issues: i) Which workers were already teleworking in the EU before the COVID-19 pandemic?; ii
6、) Where in the EU was telework more widespread, and why?, iii) How could telework patterns develop in the future? Which workers were already teleworking in the EU? Telework increased slowly in the 10 years before the Covid-19 outbreak, although mostly as an occasional work pattern. In fact, as of 20
7、19, only 5.4% of employed in the EU-27 usually worked from home a share that remained rather constant since 2009. However, over the same period, the share of employed working at least sometimes from their homes increased from 5.2% in 2009 to 9% in 2019. Working from home was considerably more common
8、 among the self- employed than dependent employees, although it increased in a similar way for both categories over the past decade. In 2109, almost 36% of the self-employed was sometimes or usually working from home in the EU-27, up from 30% in 2009. The prevalence of telework among dependent emplo
9、yees was just above 11% in 2019, up from 7.5% in 2009 (source: Eurostat LFS). Headlines The outbreak of the pandemic has revealed large differences in the prevalence of telework across EU Member States, sectors and occupations. The preparedness for telework at a large scale is higher in ICT- and kno
10、wledge-intensive sectors, and generally for high-skilled workers, although with big differences across EU countries. In many EU countries, more than half of the workers who have started working from home since the pandemic had no prior experience with teleworking. If past trends are a guide, the une
11、ven ability to scale up telework could result in widening inequalities across countries, firms, and workers. The prevalence of telework varied strongly across sectors and occupations. It was particularly high in knowledge- and ICT-intensive services. Indeed, as shown in Figure 1 more than 40% of wor
12、kers in IT and other communication services were already working from home regularly or at least with some frequency in 2018 in the EU-27. The share of regular or frequent teleworkers was above 30% in a range of knowledge-intensive business services, as well as in education and publishing activities
13、. It was also high around 20% - in telecommunications, finance and insurance. Conversely, the share of teleworkers was rather low in administrative and support services, as well as in the sectors that involve the physical manipulation of materials and/or objects, such as manufacturing. High-skilled
14、professionals and managers were already quite used to working from home. Until the outbreak of the pandemic telework had mostly been used by high-skilled workers who do most of their work on computers, enjoy high degrees of autonomy, and are employed in knowledge-intensive activities. Within this gr
15、oup, the highest prevalence of telework was found among teachers (43%) largely reflecting the occasional time spent at home preparing for face-to-face classes and coursework. ICT professionals, managers and professionals working in legal, business, administration, and science also showed similarly h
16、igh rates of teleworking (see Figure 2, next page). Beyond the nature of their work, high rates of teleworking before the pandemic among some professionals may also reflect the extent to which they performed informal overtime work at home, as well as the fact that some of them are more likely to wor
17、k as self-employed. This is particularly the case for professionals (e.g. lawyers) who can more easily determine their own work schedules and pace of work. More generally, differences in rates of telework across professions reflect the fact, that depending on the work content, some tasks can be perf
18、ormed easily from home (e.g. write a prescription), while others not or with more difficulty (e.g. visit a patient). For many other people teleworking is an almost new experience. The confinement has likely induced a spread of telework among workers who, despite working intensively with ICT, so far
19、had only limited experience with this form of work organisation. For instance, in 2018, less than 20% of ICT technicians and 10% of general keyboard clerks and other clerical support workers had experienced some form of telework. Meanwhile, junior professionals show much lower frequencies of telewor
20、k than their senior counterparts, even within the same activity (see Figure 2, next page). The very nature of some occupations makes it difficult or impossible to perform them away from the standard worksite. This is generally the case of activities that involve a high level of face-to-face interact
21、ion with the public, for example sales workers, servers, or personal service workers such as hair stylists, who showed before the pandemic the lowest shares of telework among major occupational groups. Figure 1: Prevalence of telework by sector, EU-27 Note: The group “Knowledge- intensive business s
22、ervices” includes the following sectors: Legal and Accounting Activities - Activities of Head Offices; Management Consultancy Activities - Architectural and Engineering Activities; Technical Testing and Analysis - Scientific Research and Development - Advertising and Market Research - Other Professi
23、onal, Scientific and Technical Activities. The group IC and other communication services include: Computer Programming, Consultancy and Related Activities - Information Service Activities. Source: JRC calculations from ad- hoc extractions of EU-LFS data provided by Eurostat Beyond the technical feas
24、ibility, differences in access to telework across occupations also reflected varying degrees of workers autonomy, which in turn depend on employers trust. Customer services clerks, keyboard clerks, and junior professionals had much lower access to telework than most managers and senior professionals
25、, despite often showing similarly intensive use of computers at work. This can be partly explained by the fact that these workers are more often subject to close monitoring and supervision of their performance, and therefore have less autonomy over their working time and place (Figure 3). The work a
26、utonomy of these occupations, and hence their access to telework, depends on employers and managers trust and willingness to delegate power which can vary not only across organisations, but also countries. Disparities in access to telework add to existing dimensions of income inequality. Reflecting
27、the higher prevalence of telework among high- skilled workers, access to telework was considerably more widespread among well-paid individuals. In fact, around 25% of workers in the top quarter of the EU-27 income distribution teleworked in 2018 a share that declines to less than 10% among those in
28、the bottom half (source: Eurostat, ICT usage survey). As the pandemic exacerbates the divide between Figure 2: Prevalence of telework by occupation, EU- 27 Source: JRC calculations from ad-hoc extractions of EU-LFS data provided by Eurostat. Figure 3: Computer use and work autonomy by occupation Not
29、e: The indexes are constructed in a way that 0 represents the lowest possible level of work autonomy (computer use), and 1 the highest. These indexes at the occupational level are obtained by averaging occupation-spcific scores across sectros and 12 EU countries with available data. The index of wor
30、k autonomy captures the extent of self-direction and latitude given to workers in performing their tasks. See Eurofound (2016) for further details. Source: JRC based on European Jobs Monitor Task Indicator dataset, Eurofound (2016). those who can easily transition to working from home and those who
31、cannot, inequality is set to increase, starting from an already high level. The median monthly earnings of managers and professionals people who are now mostly working from home are on average more than twice those of workers, such as assemblers, plant and machine operators, who mostly have to work
32、on-site (source: Eurostat ESES). Where was telework more widespread before the pandemic, and why? There were large differences in the prevalence of telework across EU Member States before the pandemic. Previous experience can support the current large-scale transition to telework triggered by the cr
33、isis. For instance, since the pandemic began, countries where telework was already more widespread have seen smaller drops in the number of online job advertisements. Unfortunately, as a recent JRC study shows, some of countries most affected by the pandemic had a very low prevalence of telework bef
34、ore the crisis. As of 2019, the share of employed working from home regularly or at least sometimes was above 30% in a handful of countries, including Sweden, Finland, and the Netherlands, whereas it was below 10% in half of EU Member States (Figure 4). Between these two extremes, there were countri
35、es such as Belgium, France and Portugal where the share of telework ranged from 15 to 24%. Countries in Northern Europe showed the largest growth in the prevalence of telework over the past decade, albeit sizable increases also took place in other Member States, notably in Portugal, Estonia, and Slo
36、venia. Differences in the industrial structure are one of the main factors explaining the varying prevalence of telework across EU countries. It is not surprising that in 2019 telework was structurally more widespread in countries - such as Sweden, Finland, and Denmark - with larger shares of employ
37、ment in knowledge- and ICT-intensive services (Figure 5). These countries are also those where the largest Figure 4. Prevalence of telework across EU Member States. Source: Eurostat, LFS. Variable code: lfsa ehomp. Figure 5: Industrial structure of employment and telework, EU-27 Note: see note to Fi
38、gure 1 for a detailed definition of the sectoral groups. Source: JRC calculations from Eurostat, LFS. Variables codes: lfsa_ehomp (y-axis); lfsa_egan22d (x- axis). proportion of workers began to telework as a result of the pandemic (Eurofound, 2020). However, differences in the share of telework acr
39、oss EU countries were sizable even within the same sector. For instance, while in Sweden and the Netherlands more than 60% of workers in knowledge-intensive business services were teleworking, this fraction was below 30% in Italy, and even lower in Austria and Germany (Figure 6). Similar cross-count
40、ry differences in the sectoral prevalence of telework can be observed in education, IT and communication, and to a lesser extent in administrative and support services. This suggests that, beyond differences in the industrial structure, a combination of factors contribute to explaining varying telew
41、ork adoption across EU countries. These include: Differences within sectors: The occupational composition of a given sector can be very different across Member States. For example, the shares of high- skilled occupations in ICT and communication was close to 90% in Sweden, whereas this fraction was
42、around 65% in France. As a result, the portion of workers in this sector who occasionally or regularly teleworked in 2018 was as high as 70% in Sweden and only around 40% in France (Figure 7). However, even within the same professional occupation, the prevalence of telework can vary considerably acr
43、oss countries. For instance, while more than 60% of ICT professionals in the Netherlands, was regularly or occasionally working from home in 2018, only 32 and 11% were doing so in Germany and Italy respectively (Figure 8, next page). This suggests that workers in a given occupation can have more acc
44、ess to telework in some countries than in others depending on management and supervisory styles, the organisation of work, and country-specific policies regarding aspects such as work flexibility. Figure 6: Prevalence of telework by EU country in selected sectors Note: See note to figure 1 for a det
45、ailed definition of the sectoral groups. The graph shows countries with available data on the frequency of working from home for the considered sectors. Source: JRC calculations from ad-hoc extractions of EU-LFS data provided by Eurostat. Figure 7: Occupational mix and telework by sector Note: High-
46、skilled occupations refer to ISCO-08 categories 1-3, and includes managers, professionals, technicians and associate professionals. The graph shows countries with available data on the frequency of working from home for the considered sectors. Source: JRC calculations from Eurostat, and ad-hoc extra
47、ctions of EU-LFS data The distribution of employment by firm size: Larger companies are typically more likely to adopt telework than smaller ones. For instance, countries such as the Netherlands, Sweden, and Finland, where firms with 50+ employees accounted for a larger share of total employment in
48、knowledge-intensive business services, showed before the pandemic a larger share of teleworkers in that sector than countries like Italy and Croatia, where medium-large firms employed less than 15 per cent of workers in that sector (Figure 9, next page). As the pandemic evolves, the adoption of tele
49、work could be more difficult in countries and sectors where small firms account for larger shares of employment. The rate of self-employment: For many own-account workers their home is often their place of work. Therefore, figures for own-account teleworkers include not only those “working at home” without ICT, such as small artisans and farmers, but also those “working from home” using ICT, such as designers or software developers. In fact, own-account workers represent a sizable fraction of all EU teleworkers in
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