Six in 10 travelling for work last week as homeworking uncertainty kicks in
Six in 10 people left home to travel to work in the UK over the last seven days, new data from the Office of National Statistics (ONS) today showed.
Though the same figure as last week, it is considerably higher than during the height of lockdown in February, when just 44 per cent of people did so.
Since the last stage of restriction lifting, transport usage has remained steady. Figures from Transport for London (TfL) show that there were 1.5m Tube journeys in total last Friday, still only around 40 per cent of pre-pandemic levels.
With the UK’s progress out of lockdown continuing apace, at least for the moment, more and more people are beginning to head back into their workplaces.
For some businesses, such a change cannot come soon enough. The ONS also said that a third of firms said that increased homeworking had reduced productivity among their staff.
A mere nine per cent of firms said that homeworking had made them more productive, it added. The majority reported no change.
Firms are in the process of deciding what sort of working regimes they will use after the pandemic ends.
At the moment, a quarter – 24 per cent – of firms say they will stick with homeworking, with another 28 per cent still uncertain of their plans.