White collar staff worked from home one third of the time during November
Figures released by the HR service provider Attentia show that there has been a significant increase in tele working since the start of the second lockdown. During November those in white collar jobs worked an average of 33% of their shifts from home. Among those in executive jobs the percent of working hours spent teleworking was even higher at 45%.
In September the percentage of working time white collar staff spent working from home from 24%, increasing to 27% in October. Although teleworking has increased since the start of the second lockdown, the percentage of working time we spend working from home is still far lower than it was during the first lockdown in the spring.
The main reason for this is that companies are now more able to provide a corona-safe working environment for their employees.
Attentia measures the number of hours spent teleworking as a percentage of the total hours worked. A total of 70,000 white collar workers were surveyed. These include people that only occasionally work from home and people that are currently almost exclusively teleworking. The figures only include people that work for companies with more than 10 staff.
Only a small rise in the number of people on temporary unemployment
Meanwhile, the rise in the number of people on temporary unemployment is far less pronounced. The percentage of people on temporary unemployment among white collar staff rose from 5% in September to 6% in November.
Among blue collar workers that generally are not able to work from home the rise was in November was also only slight. The slight increase in the number of people that have been laid off under the terms of the temporary unemployment system may well be due to a relaxation on the conditions for temporary unemployment that were introduced in September.
Nevertheless, the figures are still a figure cry from the situation in April during the first lockdown when 22% of white collar and 40% of blue collar workers were on temporary unemployment.