Who on Earth Can Work from Home?

Abstract

This paper reviews the emerging literature on which jobs can be performed from home and presents new estimates of the prevalence of such jobs based on the task content of occupations, their technology requirements and the availability of internet access by country and income groupings. Globally, one of every five jobs can be performed from home. In low-income countries, this ratio drops to one of every 26 jobs. Failing to account for internet access yields upward biased estimates of the resilience of poor countries, lagging regions, and poor workers. Since better paid workers are more likely to be able to work from home, COVID-19 is likely to exacerbate inequality, especially in richer countries where better paid and educated workers are insulated from the shock. The overall labor market burden of COVID-19 is bound to be larger in poor countries, where only a small share of workers can work from home and social protection systems are weaker. Across the globe, young, poorly educated workers and those on temporary contracts are least likely to be able to work from home and more vulnerable to the labor market shocks from COVID-19.

The Impact of Enforced Working from Home on Employee Job Satisfaction during COVID-19: An Event System Perspective

“…(3) LWFH has a greater inhibitory effect on EJS among more highly educated employees, while HWSS for them is less important. This may reflect their pursuit of more spiritual satisfaction beyond their basic needs, as well as social needs that cannot be met by long-term WFH [ 58 ]. (4) The more children an employee has, the more important HWSS and JA become.…”

“…According to job demands–resources (JD-R) theory, job characteristics can be categorized as job demands or job resources [ 23 ]. Job demands are elements that can cause stress, including workload [ 57 ], working hours [ 58 ] and working conditions, such as noise and temperature [ 59 ]. Job resources are physical, psychological, social or organizational aspects of work that can support employees and help them to maintain well-being.…”

A Meta-Analysis of How Country-Level Factors Affect Web Survey Response Rates

“…Furthermore, in countries with a high level of prosperity, residents often have a job that requires them to be able to use computers or other internet devices. The general population within these countries are familiar with and use technology every day, and therefore the perceived burden of internet use is minimal (Garrote Sanchez et al, 2021). Thus, for countries with a relatively high GDP, we expected participation in web surveys to be more accepted by the population and there to be a smaller difference in the response rates compared to other survey modes.…”

The impact of the COVID-19 recession on Mexican households: evidence from employment and time use for men, women, and children

“… 2 Other related work in high-income countries includes (Mark, Hurst and Karabarbounis, 2013 , Alon et al, 2020b , Bartik et al, 2020 , Boca et al, 2020 , Cajner et al, 2020 , Czymara et al, 2020 , Farré et al, 2020 , Heggeness, 2020 , Prados and Zamarro, 2020 , Yamamura and Tsustsui, 2021 , Zamarro and Prados, 2021 ). …”