Almost seven million Canadians worked from home in late March because of COVID-19 and they were much more likely to have an advanced education, according to new figures from Statistics Canada.
The data shows that about 4.7 million Canadians who do not usually work from home did so during the week of March 22 to 28. When researchers included those who usually work from home, the number rose to 6.8 million — or 39.1 per cent of workers. About the same number (38.5 per cent or 6.7 million) worked from locations other than home. In addition, approximately 2 in 10 workers (22.4 per cent or 3.9 million) were absent from their jobs, with 2.8 million of them being absent for reasons related to COVID-19.
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Those who do not normally work from home but did so during the week of March 22 were much more likely to have a bachelor’s degree or higher (58.4 per cent) than those who had continued to work outside the home (21.5 per cent) and those who were absent from work (26.9 per cent).
“This provides further evidence that working from home is more feasible for workers employed in professional or managerial occupations, which typically require higher levels of education,” it reads.
Statistics Canada promises additional information with the April Labour Force Survey.
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