Record Proportion of People in Employment are Homeworkers
5 Jun 2014 04:11 PM
There were 4.2 million
home workers in January-March 2014, or 13.9% of those in work, according to a
report published by the Office for National Statistics. This was the highest
rate of home working since comparable records began in
1998.
Of these home workers, around
1.5 million (or 5% of those in work) worked within their home or its grounds,
while the remaining 2.7 million people (8.9% of those in work) used their home
as a base but worked in different places.
The number of home workers has
grown by 1.3 million since 1998, at which time there had been just 2.9 million.
However over the same period the number of those in work in the UK has also
been rising. The percentage of those in employment who work from home (also
known as the home working rate) increased from 11.1% in 1998 to stand at a rate
of 13.9% in January to March 2014, which is the highest than at any point in
the past decade and a half.
The jobs that home workers carry
out tend to be concentrated in higher skilled roles than those of people who do
not work from home. Of the 4.2 million home workers in 2014, 14.8% were working
as managers or senior officials, 35.2% were professionals or associate
professionals and a further 23.5% were working within skilled trades. This
meant that almost three quarters (73.4%) of home workers were in some of the
highest skilled roles in the economy. Earnings for home workers reflect this
concentration in high-skill roles, the median being £13.23 an hour
compared with £10.50 an hour for other workers. For non-home workers just
over a half (51.9%) were among the same occupational groups. The most common
roles for male home workers were among construction occupations, while for
women the top roles included childminding and care work.
People working from home are
more likely to be self-employed than those in work as a whole. In January to
March 2014, around 7% of non-home workers were self-employed compared with 63%
of home workers. Around 34% of home workers were employees of an organisation,
with the small remainder being people who worked unpaid in the family
business.
Working from home is more
prevalent among individuals who are older. For those aged 16 to 24 the home
working rate stood at 5.1%, compared with 13.9% for all workers, while for
those aged 65 and over, it was 38.3%. With the exception of the oldest age
group (65 and over), home workers were more likely to use their home as a base
rather than work within the grounds of their home. For the oldest age group
they are less likely to be working within construction type roles which reduce
the numbers working from home and using it a base when compared with those who
work within their grounds.
Across 2013 as a whole, the
South West was the region of Great Britain with the highest home working rate,
at 17.1%, while the lowest rate was in Scotland at 10.7%. As at the 2011
Census, the local area with the highest home working rate across England and
Wales was West Somerset, at 25.7%, while the lowest was Kingston upon Hull, at
5.2%.
Background
notes
- The report is on the ONS website
at http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/lmac/characteristics-of-home-workers/2014/r
pt-home-workers.html
-
Home workers are defined as
those usually work for the majority of their time using their home, whether
employees or self-employed. They include both those who work within their home
or its grounds and those who work elsewhere and only use their home as a
base.
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