Working from home on the rise, but still rare

In 2015, about two-thirds of "occasional" teleworkers were men, while nearly half of "habitual" teleworkers were women. Keystone

Although the practice has quadrupled in Switzerland over the last 15 years, only 2.7% of employees work from home regularly.

According to the report released by the Federal Statistics OfficeExternal link on Tuesday, working from home is still the exception in Switzerland, with about 120,000 people using the option “habitually”, i.e. more than 50% of the time in 2015.

However, up to 20% of employees worked from home at least occasionally.

These figures concern telework, which the report defined as work that “involves the use of the internet and data exchange with the employer or client”.

When numbers of occasional and habitual teleworkers were combined, the report revealed that the practice of working from home has quadrupled in Switzerland between 2001 and 2015.

The information and communications sectors had the most employees working from home, with over 50% doing so at least occasionally. Educational, scientific and technical, and financial work also reported relatively high percentages of at least occasional work from home.

The Federal Statistics Office report only tracked work done in the home, and did not account for work done in other places or while travelling.