LONDON, April 19 (Xinhua) -- London reported the highest proportion of homeworkers in Britain in 2020 as 43 percent worked from home at some point in the past year, up from 31 percent in 2019, the British Office for National Statistics (ONS) said Monday.
London and surrounding areas had the highest rates of working from home in 2020, with many areas in Scotland and Northern Ireland having the lowest, said the ONS.
One of the reasons London had the highest rates of homeworking was because of the types of industries that predominate in London, it added.
However, people who mainly worked from home were less than half as likely to be promoted than all other workers between 2012 and 2017 and were around 38 percent less likely on average to have received a bonus compared with those who never worked from home between 2013 and 2020, said the ONS.
"Rewards for homeworking were typically less for those who exclusively worked from home, being on average paid less, less likely to get a bonus, less likely to get promoted, and less likely to receive training," said the ONS.
Meanwhile, the unprecedented increase in homeworking in 2020, driven by the COVID-19 pandemic, has led many to consider the implications for this on productivity, and other labour market related outcomes, said the ONS.
In England, all shops reopened from April 12 as lockdown eases, along with hairdressers, beauty salons and other close-contact services.
To bring life back to normal, countries such as Britain, China, Russia, the United States as well as the European Union have been racing against time to roll out coronavirus vaccines. Enditem