After being high at the beginning of 2021, the use of telecommuting gradually declined from June 2021, before rebounding at the end of the year notes INSEE.

Telecommuting is mostly used by managers. It is less frequent for young people or employees of small companies and, on the contrary, it is very common for employees in dense residential areas.

One out of two employees works in a profession where telework is not practiced.

In 2021, 22% of employees teleworked every week on average

Of the employees who teleworked, 44% teleworked all week and 56% teleworked only part of the week. In total, 15% of the days worked by all employees in 2021 were teleworked.

The share of employees teleworking decreases sharply from June 2021 onwards, only to rebound again in December

In the first five months of 2021, telecommuting continued to be common, driven by incentives or requirements in the context of the health crisis: up to 31% of employees were involved on average each week in April 2021.

As the health situation improved and telework obligations were lifted in early June, the share of employees who teleworked subsequently declined, remaining below 18% between July and November.

The further worsening of the health situation at the end of 2021 led to a rebound in telecommuting, which affected 20% of employees in December 2021, even though the telecommuting requirement did not take effect until early January 2022.

The majority of teleworkers are executives

In addition, full-week telework is more common among managers: in 2021, 47% of managers teleworked, compared to 40% of other employees who teleworked. "Among managers, however, supervising employees reduces telework: 49% of managers whose primary task is supervision teleworked on average each week of 2021, compared to 58% of others."

Less telecommuting for young people or employees of small companies

Moreover, the use of telework is rarer in small companies: in 2021, 9% of employees teleworked in companies with less than 10 employees, compared to 36% in companies with 250 or more employees.

Finally, telework is less frequent than average for young people (17% in 2021 for those under 30), part-time employees (12%) or those in temporary employment (3% in temporary work and 13% in fixed-term contracts).

Some of these characteristics are related: managers are more numerous in large companies and among the oldest employees.

For the same characteristics, telework is much more widespread in the Île-de-France region

Four categories of teleworkers

• 47% of employees work in an occupation for which telework was almost non-existent during the year 2021, even during the peak of the health crisis. The vast majority of these employees are blue-collar and white-collar workers (86%), and more generally employees in the health and social services, retail and hospitality sectors.
• 26% of employees work in an occupation with a median use of telework in 2021. These occupations are more frequently than average occupied by women, intermediate occupations or qualified employees, or civil servants: reception, secretarial and accounting employees, administrative employees in the public service, etc.
•  18% of employees work in an occupation where telecommuting was common in 2021, affecting more than one in two employees on average over the year (52%) but reaching 62% at its peak in April. Employees in this group are frequently managers in supervisory roles, IT engineers, financial executives and journalists.
• 6% work in an occupation for which telework has been intensified in 2021. These occupations are exclusively managerial, and less frequently managerial positions: IT engineers, financial managers, journalists, teacher-researchers in higher education, for example. More than three quarters (77%) of employees in this group teleworked on average each week in 2021 and 59% of the days worked in these occupations were teleworked.

Référence : 1