Evidence from the Labour Force Survey analyses national data to examine the truth or otherwise of some of the claims and myths around home-located work. As might be expected, the picture that emerges is complex and varied. Unfortunately these kind of questions were not asked before 1997, so it is not possible to use these figures to confirm or refute the widely held view that there is a growing trend towards home-located work. But in due course it should be possible to tell. Summary A new report from Leicester University explodes some of the myths about home working - while showing that for a minority of home working they still apply.
Traditional wisdom has it that women work more at home than men.
This is related to the gender agenda in a number of ways, and is often associated in the literature with issues such as childcare and low pay. But the picture is more complex. This may be true for traditional forms of homeworking, as other studies undertaken by bodies such as the TUC and ILO have indicated. However, it may be that this is not the case for newer forms of more flexible, home-based work which, it may turn out, is dominated by well qualified professional white males. We can't say this with a high degree of certainty as yet, as unfortunately the LFS despite the question on use of ICT does not make a clear-cut distinction between job types.