“69% of the working population switched to teleworking compared to 20% in 2019,” according to a recent Statec survey.
Statec stated:
“48% of workers (including both employees and self-employed) have been teleworking full-time and 21% in rotation, while only 31% have continued to work entirely at the site of their employer. Telework is particularly high in education (74%), administrative and financial services (61%), and public administration (47%). Among the self-employed and freelancers, the rate has been 66%.”
Demographic differences
Foreign nationals have been more likely to telecommute (55%) than native Luxembourgers (40%). It was more common in the Centre region (60% teleworking full-time) than in the East (52%), the South (42%) and the North (31%) regions.
“Telework has also been particularly widespread among older people (55+), probably [because] vulnerability [to the coronavirus] increases with age,” Statec said. Telecommuting was more common among those with higher education levels. The statistics agency did not find that type of housing made a big difference, but those with children were somewhat more likely to telework full-time (52%) than those without kids at home (45%).
Change in telework habits
The vast majority of people (74%) said they were telecommuting full-time entirely due to covid-19 precautions, while 17% said they already teleworked some of the time and 8% said the outbreak had caused “no change” to home working schedule.
Some like the home office more than others
Only 15% of respondents said their teleworking experience was negative, with 30% neutral and 55% positive, Statec said.
Those working in the public sector and in administrative and financial services (60%) were more positive than the general population. Those in the educational sector (29%) were most negative.
Men (57%) were a bit more favourable to telecommuting than women (53%), and people living in a house (58%) were slightly more positive than flat-dwellers (51%).
Drawbacks
A quarter of working respondents expressed concern about their employment security in the face of covid-19, with numbers higher among those working in the hospitality sector (44%), industry (39%) and retail (31%).
Nearly one in five said their physical health and a third said that their mental wellbeing had suffered under confinement.
The survey was conducted by the polling firm TNS-Ilres, with questions fielded to 2,000 Luxembourg residents by telephone between 29 April and 8 May.