Working from home at 5 pct in EU

By Muhammed Ali Gurtas

ANKARA

The rate of employed people aged 15 to 64 in the European Union who usually work from home stood at five percent last year, Eurostat announced Wednesday.

"This figure was highest in the Netherlands (13.7 percent), followed by Luxembourg (12.7 percent) and Finland (12.3 percent)," the institute said.

According to official figures for 2017, the lowest ratios were recorded in Bulgaria and Romania at 0.3 and 0.4 percent, respectively.

Eurostat noted that working from home was slightly more common in the euro area -- 5.7 percent of employees -- than in the EU as a whole.

"The percentage of employed people in the EU who sometimes work from home has increased steadily over the years, from 7.7 percent in 2008 to 9.6 percent in 2017, although the figure in 2017 was down slightly from 2016 (9.8 percent)," the institute said.

"In the EU, more self-employed people usually worked from home (18.1 percent) than employees (2.8 percent)," it said. "This was true in all member states."

Women vs men

Eurostat stated that a slightly higher proportion of women in the EU usually worked from home -- 5.3 percent -- than men with 4.7 percent last year.

"However, in a few member states, the situation was the reverse, with more men usually working from home than women," it noted.

"This was noticeably the case in the Netherlands (14.7 percent of men, compared to 12.6 percent of women) and Denmark (9.5 percent compared to 7.6 percent)."

The EU's statistics office also noted that working from home becomes more common with age.

"The frequency of working from home increases with age," it said. "Only 1.6 percent of 15-24 year-olds in the EU usually worked from home in 2017, rising to 4.7 percent of 25-49 year-olds and 6.4 percent of 50- to 64-year-olds."