Teleworking on the increase in Europe - 12/2001

DC has forecast that the number of teleworkers in Europe will increase to over 28.8 million by 2005, up from 10 million last year.

There are two types of teleworkers, according to IDC. Mobile workers are defined as those who spend at least 20 percent of their working hours away from home, their main place of work, or both. There will be over 20.1 million mobile workers in Europe by 2005, up from 6.2 million last year.

Telecommuters are those who work at home at least one day a week of a five-day working week. These will increase from 3.8 million last year to 8.7 million by 2005.

More than 45 percent of teleworkers work for large or very large firms, usually in the business services, finance, and health sectors.

The number of teleworkers varies from country to country within Europe. Scandinavia and Finland have the highest proportion of teleworkers out of the total number of white collar workers, as a result of low cost technologies, legislative frameworks, and corporate culture.

Countries in Southern Europe such as Italy, Spain, Portugal, and Greece have the lowest proportion of teleworkers, because these countries tend to have bureaucratic and centralized institutional structures

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