In 2022, Finland emerged as the fifth highest country in Europe for the prevalence of remote work, considering the proportion of employed individuals who worked from home at least occasionally. However, when focusing on those who engaged in remote work for over half of their work hours, Finland ranked second after Ireland, according to an article by Pertti Taskinen, Chief Actuary at Statistics Finland. These insights are based on data from the International Labour Force Survey.
The Netherlands claimed the lead for individuals engaging in remote work at any frequency, with a rate of 53% of the employed population in 2022. Sweden followed with 45%, while Finland's rate was 40%. On the other hand, in the category of individuals who worked remotely for over half of their work hours, Ireland topped the chart with 25%, followed by Finland at 24%.
"The results show that remote work has been considerably less common on a regular basis in the Netherlands and especially in Norway compared to, for example, Finland. Finland's proportion surpasses the EU average by over 2.5 times," Taskinen wrote, referencing the group of individuals who worked remotely for over half of their work hours.
Remote work became widespread across Europe, especially at the outset of the COVID-19 crisis. Notably, Finland deviated in terms of 2022 trends from countries where remote work is significantly more prevalent than the average. The proportion of individuals engaged in remote work at least occasionally decreased by only 1.6 percentage points in Finland in 2022 compared to 2021, whereas the EU average decline was 3.3 percentage points.
"For instance, in Norway and Sweden, almost 10 percentage points of those who worked regularly from home returned to the office, if such a reduction in the regularity of home-based work can be termed as such," Taskinen remarked.
HT
