Teleworking affects more senior employees, those with university studies, women and residents of Montreal and Outaouais, indicates the most recent study from the Institut de la tourisme du Québec (ISQ).
And, on the other hand, those who are least likely to telework are those who earn less than $20 per hour, those who do not have a high school diploma and those who work in the regions of the Côte-Nord–Nord-du-Québec and Abitibi-Témiscamingue.
More precisely, in 2022, among those who earned a salary of at least $50 per hour, 21% worked exclusively from home, 43% worked in hybrid mode, while 36% worked face-to-face.
On the contrary, among those who earned less than $20 per hour, 90% worked face-to-face in 2022.
“The higher a person’s salary, the more likely they are to telework,” reports the ISQ study.
Luc Cloutier-Villeneuve, labor statistics analyst at the ISQ, explains the phenomenon by the type of job held and the type of industry.
“This is explained in particular by the type of profession which is occupied by the highest earners. Often, this goes with high levels of education such as university. We mainly find jobs for professionals and also managers, in the public sector and the private sector. Teleworkers are mainly found in the professional, scientific and technical services industries, finance, insurance, real estate and also public administration. There are many jobs that offer good salaries, for which the possibility of teleworking is very present, given that they do more cognitive work, work that uses technologies, among other things . »
More women
Also, women telework more than men. In 2022, 40% of workers reported teleworking, compared to 31% of workers, notes the ISQ.
This statistic may seem surprising, since women often work in the health care, education, and retail sectors—areas not very conducive to teleworking.
Mr. Cloutier-Villeneuve, however, argues that women are also more present in public administration, while men more often occupy manual or production jobs.
Regions
The regions of Quebec are affected differently by teleworking. The teleworking rate reaches 45% in Montreal, 44% in Outaouais and 38% in Quebec.
Mr. Cloutier-Villeneuve explains this by the presence of the public service, and in the case of Montreal, the presence of finance, insurance and real estate services.
Conversely, teleworking is less marked in resource regions such as Abitibi-Témiscamingue and Côte-Nord — Nord-du-Québec.
Mr. Cloutier-Villeneuve highlights the appetite of teleworkers. “Among the people who wrote that their job was “teleworkable”, a greater proportion of them said that they did not do as much as they would have liked. So, there is an intention, a desire to do more teleworking among people who work remotely. And that corresponds with studies which demonstrate, in general, that there is satisfaction with teleworking. »