1、 Telework in the EU before and after the COVID-19: where we were, where we head to Since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic working from home has become the norm for millions of workers in the EU and worldwide. Early estimates from Eurofound (2020) suggest that close to 40% of those currently wor
2、king in the EU began to telework fulltime as a result of the pandemic. A recent JRC study provides a rough estimation of around 25% of employment in teleworkable sectors in the EU as a whole. Considering that before the outbreak just 15% of the employed in the EU had ever teleworked, large numbers o
3、f workers and employers alike are, in all probability, facing challenges in dealing with the sudden shift to telework. The extent of these difficulties, however, is likely to vary considerably, depending among other factors on the level of prior experience with telework. In its recent communication
4、on the 2020 country-specific recommendations the Commission highlights the important role of telework in preserving jobs and production in the context of the Covid-19 crisis. Against this backdrop, this brief discusses the challenges that countries, employers and workers are facing in adapting to th
5、e new work-from-home environment, on the basis of pre-outbreak trends in the prevalence of telework across EU countries, sectors and occupations. In particular, what follows tries to answer to the following issues: i) Which workers were already teleworking in the EU before the COVID-19 pandemic?; ii
6、) Where in the EU was telework more widespread, and why?, iii) How could telework patterns develop in the future? Which workers were already teleworking in the EU? Telework increased slowly in the 10 years before the Covid-19 outbreak, although mostly as an occasional work pattern. In fact, as of 20