Telecommuting is here for the long-term. This was one of many predictions made by experts during the pandemic when millions were forced to work remotely. It wasn’t just the experts who predicted this, but the majority of the population believed it too. According to a recent survey by the CIS, almost 30% believed that teleworking would rise last year, a percentage which grew to 34% for men. These predictions did not come to pass. Remote work has declined in the first month of the year, and far from rising.
There are nearly 105,000 less people who telework in the first quarter 2022 than there were at the end last year. After the rate fell again five tenths, they now represent 2.63 million people, 13.1% of all those employed. This is a far cry from the level recorded in the worst moments of the pandemic. It reached 20% in the second quarter 2020 according to data from the Active Population Survey (EPA).
Teleworking was the solution for companies that had more than three million employees working remotely over half of the day. We must also add in a half-million that he occasionally did as a historical figure.
However, the number of telecommuters who are frequent has dropped to 1.5 million. However, the number of people who do it regularly – even though they have decreased slightly in the first year – has risen to 5.6%, which is more than 1.1million, compared with the 3.5% that could do it in 2019.
However, there are significant differences among groups. The self-employed telecommute much more, doubling the wage earners and working less than half of the work week, while doing more. It is true that telecommuting among employees has fallen from 17% to nearly 10% after the pandemic but has remained stable for the self-employed and even improved slightly to 30%. However, the number of entrepreneurs who have used this method on a regular basis has dropped from 20.9% down to 16.5% in 2020.
Age and autonomy also influence the possibility of working remotely for more or less time each week. Teleworking is most common in the 25-44 age group. However, occasional teleworking is more common in the 45-54 age groups.
Telework is more common for women between 16-24 years of age than for the rest. This group is only 3.4% of all employed women, compared to 5.5% for men this age. Women aged between 16-44 years are more likely to be working remote than men. However, it is less common for women to work remotely from 45 and beyond.
Madrid, with 13.5% of its workforce telecommuting on a regular basis, continues to be the most populous community. This is more than twice that of other regions. The next is Asturias (9%) which, with a 1.2-point increase, becomes the region that experienced the greatest growth in the quarter. Catalonia (8.8%) follows. When the data is analyzed by communities in terms of gender, it becomes apparent that only 10 autonomies have a majority of telecommuters who are women. La Rioja and Cantabria are the most prominent.
