Detailed Analysis of LFS results for 1998 by IES

Please note: this text is copyright material extracted from Teleworking and Globalisation, a study by Ursula Huws, Nick Jagger and Siobhan O'Regan published in 1999 by the Institute for Employment Studies who should be acknowledged in any quotation of these results.

The definition of a teleworker was constructed as follows:

Respondents who had indicated, either

• that they were regular homeworkers - i.e. they mainly work at home or they work in different places but use home as a base, or
• that they were occasional homeworkers - i.e. they had spent at least one full day in the reference week working at home or using their home as a base

Those answering positively to this question constituted 5% of the workforce of whom 68% were male and 32% were female.
It is possible, however, that some of these were people for whom the combination of a computer and a telephone link were not essential prerequisites for their work but optional extras, perhaps only used occasionally. Accordingly a further filter was applied, in the form of the additional question, 'Would it be possible to work at home (or use home as a base) without using both a telephone and a computer?'. The addition of this question also makes it possible to triangulate the results with those of the Teleworking in Britain survey, in which we used the same definition.

The exclusion of those answering 'no' to this question reduces the overall proportion of teleworkers in the working population to 4%, of whom 70% are male and 30% female.

The over-representation of men (who make up only 56% of the total UK workforce) in the teleworking workforce is interesting, especially in the light of stereotyped views that teleworking is especially suitable for women because of their domestic responsibilities. However a more detailed analysis of the location in which the work takes place reveals a more traditional pattern, as can be seen from Table 1.

Table 1: Work Location of UK Teleworkers by Gender, % of Teleworkers

From this analysis it can be seen that while the proportion of men and women working from separate premises adjacent to the home is about the same (at 25% and 24% respectively). There are major gender differences between those who work at home and those who work from their homes. Forty one per cent of female teleworkers work at home, compared with only 15% of their male counterparts, whilst over half the male teleworkers (51%) use their homes as a base but work in a variety of locations. Only a small proportion (1% of male and 2% of female teleworkers) have a separate work-space on the same grounds or in another part of the same building as their home.

Turning to the demographic characteristics of teleworkers, we find an age distribution somewhat skewed to the mid-career period. Only 2% of teleworkers are in the 16-24 age-bracket (compared with 14% in the whole workforce), and only 12% aged 55-64 (with a further 3% aged 65 or over). Nearly a third (32%) are aged 35-44 (compared with 25% of all workers) with a further 29% aged 45-54 (here, the comparable figure for the total workforce is 22%). The 25-34 age-band accounts for 22% of teleworkers and 26% of all workers.

Nearly three-quarters of teleworkers (73%) are married or living with a partner, compared with only 58% in the workforce at large, with 18% who have always been single (compared with 31% of all workers) and a further 9% who are separated, divorced or widowed. Nine per cent of these teleworkers have children under the age of two, 12% have children aged between two and four, 19% have children aged between five and nine and 21% have children aged between ten and fifteen. In each case these proportions are very slightly higher than in the general population, but never more than a single percentage point higher. Given the fact that teleworkers are much more likely to be married than non-teleworkers and are also more likely to be in their thirties and forties, this difference is very slight, and it would be difficult to use these statistics to support an argument that teleworking results from a life-style choice to put family before work.

We also examined the hours worked by these teleworkers and discovered that over three quarters (77%) are working full time, with the remaining 23% classified as part-time workers. As expected, female teleworkers are more likely to work part-time than their male counterparts, with nearly half - 47% - working part-time, compared with only 12% of male teleworkers.
Turning to employment status, we find a more even balance. Just over half of all teleworkers (52%) are employees, with 47% classified as self-employed and the remaining 1% as paid family workers. The proportion of male teleworkers who are self-employed is, at 49%, somewhat higher than the 42% of women who are classified in this way, but not enormously so. There are clearly substantial numbers both of men and of women working as teleworkers both as employees and on their own account. It is possible that some of the self-employed teleworkers might fall into the category of 'pseudo-self-employed' workers, that is people who might be deemed to be employed if their case were tested in law (for instance if they are dependent for work on a single employer under whose direction they carry out). Whether this is the case could only be ascertained in the light of qualitative research.

Nine per cent of teleworkers are disabled, roughly the same proportion as in the workforce as a whole. A breakdown of the sample by type of disability reveals no significant differences between teleworkers and the rest of the working population.
The sectoral and occupational distribution of UK teleworkers are presented in tables 2 and 3.

Table 2: Sectoral Distribution of UK Teleworkers compared with Total Workforce, %

A comparison of the sectoral breakdown of the teleworking workforce with that of the total workforce is not, perhaps as striking as it could be. The proportion working in service industries taken as a whole, at 72% is almost identical to the 71% of the whole UK workforce in this sector. Similarly, the same proportion are to be found in the primary and energy sectors.
The proportions in manufacturing, transport and distribution, hotels and catering are somewhat lower, not surprisingly in view of the undelocalisable nature of much of the work in these sectors. However the main contrast is in the much higher proportion of teleworkers working in the banking, finance, insurance and business services sector. This sector alone accounts for over a third (34%) of teleworkers, compared with only 15% of the total workforce. The public sector, by contrast, which accounts for nearly a quarter of all workers, accounts for only 14% of teleworkers, despite including a high proportion of workers whose jobs involve processing information (as well as many, admittedly, such as those in health care and education, whose jobs require a face-to-face presence). Apart from the finance and business services sector, the only sectors in which teleworkers are over-represented compared with the general population are 'other services' and 'construction'. We must presume that this latter category includes a number of people (including architects and engineers as well as self-employed building contractors) who are multi-locational workers using their homes as a base.

Table 3: Occupational Distribution of UK Teleworkers compared with Total Workforce, %

We must turn to the occupational breakdown to get a better sense of what kind of work these teleworkers are actually doing. Table 3 shows us that here there are substantial differences. Teleworkers are more than twice as likely (at 23% compared with 10%) than other workers to be in professional occupations, and considerably more likely (at 26% compared with 16%) to be managers and associate professional or technical staff (at 18% compared with 10%). Surprisingly, in view of the intensive use of IT in much of this kind of work, secretarial and clerical occupations are under-represented among teleworkers (at 9% compared with 15% in the total workforce), whilst the proportions of teleworkers in craft and sales occupations are the same as amongst other workers. It is likely, however, that this broad category conceals major differences in the kinds of task involved. Teleworking sales staff are likely to be either travelling sales representatives or tele-sales personnel, whilst their non-teleworking counterparts are more likely to be shop assistants, although some staff in outgoing call centres would also be categorised as non-teleworkers under the definition used in this analysis. Finally, and unsurprisingly, there are extremely low proportions of teleworkers amongst people in personal and protective occupations and among plant and machinery operatives - occupations which generally speaking do not depend on the use of computers and telephones and which, in many cases, require face-to-face interaction with customers, or the operation of machines which are located in factories or other outside workplaces.

Taken together, these results suggest that the propensity to be a teleworker is not associated strongly with any unusual demographic features or types of work. On the contrary, teleworkers seem to share most of the characteristics of the rest of the workforce. Apart from a somewhat greater propensity to be married, with children and in mid-career than other workers, their remote location seems to be the only feature which distinguishes them strongly from those who work on-site. The occupations in which teleworkers are over-represented appear on the whole to correlate quite logically with those with the greatest propensity to make extensive use of ICTs in combination with a certain minimal level of autonomy.