Finding out how to get a job and work in UK
Most important factors
- The proportion of working adults who did any earn a living from home in 2020 expanded to 37% on common from 27% in 2019 with people residing in London the most probably to homework.
- when requested approximately homeworking, working adults stated paintings-existence stability changed into the best effect, even as challenges of collaboration had been the finest terrible.
- Of corporations not completely stopped trading, 24% said that they intended to apply expanded homeworking going ahead, with the information and communication enterprise recording the best percentage (49%).
- online activity ads which include phrases related to “homeworking” have multiplied at a faster fee than overall adverts, with homeworking ads in may additionally 2021 3 times above their February 2020 average.
- Of operating adults currently homeworking, eighty-five% desired to apply a “hybrid” technique of each home and office working in destiny. However, there were a few uncertainties among agencies, with 32% stating they had been no longer certain what percentage of the personnel could be operating from their normal place of job.
Modern-day homeworking practices

Responses to the commercial enterprise Insights and situations Survey (BICS) cover the period five April to 2 May also 2021 at the same time as responses to the reviews and Lifestyle Survey (OPN) cowl the duration 21 April to 16 May 2021. The consequences of the future of homeworking questions reflect the expectancies of agencies and individuals at the time the surveys were taken.
On average in 2019, 27% of the workforce labored from domestic at some point consistent with Annual population Survey (APS) statistics. This expanded to a mean of 37% in 2020, following government guidance to work from home where feasible.
Statistics collected from the OPN show the percentage of individuals working remotely has been declining since March 2021, as restrictions started to ease
Even as the percentage of employees each operating from home and journeying to work has remained pretty solid, proof from the OPN and the business Insights and situations Survey (BICS) indicates individuals and workplaces expect improved tiers of hybrid models of working after the COVID-19 pandemic.
- Chances might not sum to 100% due to rounding.
- “Spring 2020 lockdown”: 23 March 2020 to thirteen may additionally 2020.
“Autumn and wintry weather 2020 regulations”: 14 October 2020 to 4 January 2021. “Early 2021 lockdown”: 5 January 2021 to 8 March 2021. “Roadmap for England posted”: 22 February 2021.
“Restriction lifting begins”: eight March 2021.
Employees dwelling in London have been maximum probably to document operating from domestic inside the preceding seven days. the ones aged 30 to forty-nine years have been most in all likelihood to document working from home, with nearly half (45%) saying so as compared with around one-1/3 of those aged 16 to 29 years (34%) and 50 to 69 years (32%).
A comparable share of agencies (31%) suggested that their group of workers become operating remotely as restrictions eased in April and might 2021. There were large variations between industries, with most people of the group of workers in organizations in information and conversation; and expert, scientific, and Technical sports industries far-flung working (eighty-one% and seventyone%).
- Final weighted consequences, Wave 29 of BICS.
- Industries will no longer sum to 100% because of rounding, possibilities less than 1% eliminated for disclosure functions.
- Mining and quarrying have been removed for disclosure functions, but overall is protected in “All industries”.
This newsletter uses experimental facts from Adzuna looking at developments of online process ads that consist of homeworking wording evaluating pre-pandemic stages of homeworking vacancies to contemporary tiers. Homeworking ads are described as people who consist of any reference to homeworking, which includes home working most effective or hybrid.
While lockdown restrictions started in March 2020, overall UK online task advertisements fell and did no longer go back to pre-pandemic common tiers until the stop of April 2021, in line with experimental estimates provided by using Adzuna, an internet task search engine.
However, online process ads including phrases associated with “homeworking” reached pre-pandemic common degrees by July 2020. Via might also 2021, such adverts were being posted at 307% of their February 2020 average stage. But, far-flung running similarly class breakdowns are protected in the online activity ad estimates dataset, and extra details on the methodology can be found in section 7.
1. “spring 2020 lockdown”: 23 March 2020 to 13 May 2020. “Autumn and winter 2020 regulations”: 14 October 2020 to four January 2021. “Early 2021 lockdown”: five January 2021 to 8 March 2021. “Roadmap for England posted”:
22 February 2021.
Again, trends various considerably, inside the Charity and
Voluntary category advertisements which include terms related to “homeworking” increased to 23.four% of general ads in March 2021.
As regulations then commenced to ease in spring 2021, homeworking vacancies remained high throughout many categories. In the Charity and Voluntary category, the share of homeworking advertisements fell barely between March and can 2021, however, have been still 12. three percent factors above their February 2020 average level. Within the IT, Computing.
Future remote operating practices
Do groups and individuals see homeworking persevering with?
Facts from the Business Insights and conditions Survey (BICS) showed that of businesses that had now not completely stopped trading, 24% intend to apply extended homeworking as a permanent commercial enterprise version going forward, while 28% had been no longer sure.
Groups within the data and verbal exchange enterprise were most likely to intend to boom homeworking within the destiny (49%), but this proportion became still far lower
- Final weighted results, Wave 29.
- Mining and quarrying have been eliminated for disclosure purposes, however, overall is covered in “All industries”.
For those industries not intending to adopt multiplied remote running going ahead, this may be because it is not feasible to evolve to homeworking. Previous ONS analysis assessed which jobs can be finished from domestic, supplying a “homeworking score”. This turned into based on the technological capability to do business from home and survey statistics that asked employees themselves if they idea they may perform their obligations from domestic.
Each company and people favored a “hybrid” operating approach (an aggregate of both workplace and homeworking) within the future. however, whilst nearly two-fifths (38%) of companies expected seventy-five% or extra of their group of workers to be at their normal workplace, a huge percentage (36%) of those present homeworking concept they might spend the majority of all their time home working within the future. agencies had a little uncertainty of when they could go back with one-0.33 (32%) no longer certain.
but, responses differed by enterprise, only 15% of the facts and communication industry predicted seventy-five% or greater of their group of workers at their regular workplace at the same time as this was almost half (fortynine%) for the Accommodation and food service pastime industry. The difference is likely linked to an industry’s capability to do homework currently and within the destiny.
Very few groups (2%) mentioned that they were now not looking forward to the group of workers returning to their traditional workplace at all. but, around one-fifth of all organizations (19%) were uncertain, reflecting ultimate uncertainty around wherein employees will be running in the destiny.
Perceptions of homeworking
How do people and enterprises understand homeworking?
The use of evaluations and way of life Survey (OPN) facts, people’s views of blessings, and downsides of homeworking have been explored. Responses of individuals stating whether something becomes high-quality or terrible have been mixed to show a typical view. As an example, work-existence balance is shown (discern 10) as superb, meaning more people said it turned into an advantage than a disadvantage.
Universal, people said the principal benefit of homeworking is “an improvement to paintings-life stability”. Some other nice turned into “a discount in the time taken to finish paintings” which may be linked to most people finding there had been fewer distractions when working at home compared with inside the office.
The principal disadvantage turned into a feeling that it changed into more difficult to collaborate with others on work with “fewer activity possibilities” also pronounced.
- Questions: “Which of the subsequent advantages/risks have you ever skilled in view that running from domestic compared on your commonplace of work?
- ” Internet sentiment is calculated by way of subtracting “dangers” percentage factors from the associated “blessings” percentage points.
More youthful workers had been less possibly to record a typical fantastic view of homeworking than older workers, with fewer respondents elderly among 16 and 29 years reporting “stepped forward paintings-lifestyles balance” or “completing paintings in a shorter time” than those elderly over 30 years. They have been additionally the handiest age institution to general report more distractions running from domestic.
Girls have been more likely than guys to report homeworking gave them greater time to finish work and fewer distractions, while guys had been more likely to record better wellness. For guys, homeworking aided the advent of the latest thoughts, even for women this changed into more likely to be seen as a barrier.
In comparison, when groups had been requested why they intend to use extended homeworking in future, progressed team of workers wellbeing was the most commonplace reason furnished, with 4 in five businesses citing it. Reduced overheads and expanded productiveness had been also common reasons
Stepped forward group of workers wellbeing turned into the main reason for organizations proceeding to apply expanded homeworking as a permanent commercial enterprise model
Outside proof shows a connection between those advantages, with a team of workers’ well-being connected to better tiers of productivity. Similarly, “reduced illness degrees” may also be associated with the productivity of companies. The sickness absence rate for workers doing and earning a living from home was 0.nine% on average in 2020, in comparison with 2.2% for those who in no way worked from home.
The simplest category of businesses wherein “stepped forward workforce well-being” turned into no longer the most cited cause to apply homeworking going ahead had been ones with less than 10 personnel, the main cause noted right here turned into “reduced overheads”.
Statistics resources and fine
To perceive these ads we’ve got applied text-matching to discover activity adverts which comprise key phrases associated with homeworking inclusive of “far off working”, “earn a living from home”, “domestic-based” and “telework”. The statistics do not one at a time discover job advertisements that completely provide homeworking from the ones which give flexible homeworking, such as someday a week from domestic.
Business Insights and situations Survey (BICS)
This newsletter draws on data from the enterprise Insights and situations Survey (BICS), which captures businesses’ views on economic performance, staff, fees, alternate, and commercial enterprise resilience inside the UK
The subsequent industries are excluded from the survey:
- Agriculture
- Public administration and defense
- Public provision of education and fitness
- Finance and coverage
Reviews and Lifestyle Survey

This newsletter makes use of signs from the evaluations and way of life Survey to apprehend the effect of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic on humans, families, and groups in first-rate Britain. In addition information on the OPN regarding the statistics within the above figures are:
- Over the Christmas duration, there have been fewer adults who stated they’d both traveled to paintings or labored from domestic inside the closing seven days; this changed most probably because of converting paintings plans over the Christmas smash.
- Someone is “operating” if they had a paid job, either as a worker self-employed; or they did any informal paintings for a fee, or they did any unpaid or voluntary paintings in the previous week.
- non-public annual gross profits is self-said on the OPN survey and therefore need to be dealt with caution; a respondent’s profits data does no longer constitute equalized household profits, which takes under consideration all earnings from all household members, and adjusting for that truth that households with more people will need higher earnings to obtain the same widespread of residing as households with fewer members
Annual population Survey (APS)
Information from the annual population Survey (APS) seems at the proportion of the team of workers running from domestic between 2015 and 2020.
Collaboration
This article turned into produced by way of the office for countrywide data (ONS) in collaboration with our research partners at the college of Warwick who has supported our work in figuring out online homeworking advertisements. Of unique be aware are the underneath.
Marko Draco, Emma Duchene, Roland Rat helot, Arthur Terrell, and Giulia Attune. The University of Warwick crew will be publishing an educational paper on their paintings on 30 June, titled ‘Revolution in progress: the upward thrust of remote work in the United Kingdom. CAGE operating Paper (2021)’