Since the coronavirus pandemic working from home has become part of life for many hundreds of thousands of office workers here in Belgium. Although some companies are now seeking to curtail teleworking among their staff, the number of people spending at least a portion of their working time working from home remains high.
34 million fewer kilometres travelled in Belgium each weekday thanks to people working from home
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A study by federal transport and employment ministries shows that teleworking continues to have a positive impact on traffic congestion in rush hour periods.
31% of people working in Belgium currently work from home at least one day a week. This is down 2 percentage points on a year ago. According to the study this means that each working day around 34 million fewer kilometres are travelled by commuters, of which 16 million kilometres would have been by car.
Regional differences
According to the study there are big regional differences in the percentage of working time spent working from home. In the Brussels-Capital Region, 45% of employment is accounted for by people working from home. In Flanders this 32% and in Wallonia 26%.
Many of those that work from home do so 2 days a week. Wednesday (44%) and Friday (52%) are the most popular days for teleworking. The study also revealed that (not surprisingly). Those living further away from their work are more likely to work from home. Around 60% of those that live more than 50km from their workplace says that they work from home at least one day a week.
The study was carried out between August 2023 and July 2024. Over 4,000 people took part.