Working from home increasingly common in NL

Working from home is becoming increasingly common in the Netherlands. The number of people who work from home at least some of the time increased from 2.8 million in 2013 to 3.3 million last year. That is 37 percent of the employed workforce, according to figures Statistics Netherlands released on Wednesday.

Working from home is most common in the Randstad and in other urban areas, where there is the most traffic. Though there are also areas with short commute times and a high proportion of people who work from home, like in the region of Haarlem where 42 percent of workers sometimes work from home and the commute is the shortest in the country.  

The Gooi en Vechtstreek, Utrecht and Greater Amsterdam regions counted the most home-workers. 45 percent of residents in paid employment in these regions worked from home in 2018. People in Southeast Drenthe and East Groningen worked from home least often, only a quarter of workers. 

In addition to traffic and commute times, the regional differences can also partly be explained by the type of work available per region. Some professions, like financial services, are more suitable for working from home than others, like working in the hospitality industry. 

There are five industries that count more than 60 percent workers who sometimes work from home - information and communication, education, financial services, specialist business services, and energy supply. More than a quarter of jobs available in these industries are located in the Amsterdam, Delft and Westland, and Utrecht regions.