According to the National Statistics Institute (INE), of the 18400 Azorean teleworkers, 16,400 people (89.1% in relative terms) stated that, between April and June, the Covid‑19 pandemic was the main reason for working from home.
These results are part of the module on 'Working from home' of the Employment Survey, published by INE. The target population for this module is the employed population, estimated at 4.7 million people in the country as a whole.
The Azores Region presented the lowest proportion of employees who worked always or almost always at home (16.4%), while the Metropolitan Area of Lisbon was the region with the highest proportion of workers always or almost always at home (36%).
In the country as a whole, one million people were teleworking in the second quarter mainly due to the Covid-19, the equivalent of 23.1% of the employed population, while more than 600,000 did not work either at the workplace or at home.
"The employed population who stated having always or almost always worked at home during the reference week or the previous three weeks was estimated at 1094,400 people," highlights INE.
According to the Statistics Office, the population that worked always or almost always from home between April and June worked an average of 33 hours per week, 8 hours more than the population that did not work from home or that did not work always or almost always at home (25 hours on average).
The difference between these average weekly hours can be explained, according to INE, by the high increase of employed population absent from work during the reference week, namely as a consequence of the simplified lay-off regime, and whose number of hours at work (zero) were accounted for in this indicator, as well as by the reduction in working hours that may have occurred in some companies.
In order to practice their professional activity from home, 17,200 Azoreans revealed that they used information and communication technologies, representing 93.6% of the people who worked always or almost always at home in the second quarter.
In terms of equipment, 8400 of the Azorean teleworkers revealed they needed to use a computer and a smartphone, while 7500 stated they only needed the computer.
This survey also reveals that, during the second quarter, there were 14,500 Azoreans who did not work in their main job, of which 9300 (64.4%) said the main reason behind this was the Covid-19 pandemic.
In the country as a whole, there were 643,800 employed people stating they did not work due to the pandemic, the highest percentage being for people in the Algarve (85.4%), the Autonomous Region of Madeira (81.8%) and the Central Region (80.6%), as well as for those who completed secondary education or post-secondary non-higher education (83%) and self-employed (91.3%). Among the economic activities in the services sector, lodging, restaurants and similar activities were the most affected (92%). Similarly, personal services, protection and security workers and vendors were also affected (81.7%).