Working from home after Covid pandemic: Jobs and cities were practice is embraced

Plan to keep working from home? These are the best places to live and the best jobs to have if you want to do it forever

• Research by the ABS has revealed the number of Australians working from home
• Exactly 21 per cent of the population worked from home in the August 2021 data
• Balmain had the most residents working from home in the country at 68 per cent
• The financial and insurance sector had the most workers at home at 66 per cent

By Jesse Hyland For Daily Mail Australia

Published: 02:32 BST, 16 October 2022 | Updated: 02:46 BST, 16 October 2022

The jobs and places in Australia most likely to let you work from home have been revealed as the pandemic comes to an end – with financial services and greater Sydney coming out on top for people wanting to avoid the office. 

The Australian Bureau of Statistics released its latest figures on the number of people working from home in different professions and regions across Australia.

In the most recent statistics from August 2021, 2.5million people – or 21 per cent of the workforce – were working from home and 41 per cent were ‘regularly’ at home.

This was a significant leap from 4.7 per cent in 2016, which was the last time data was gathered. 

Recent data by the Australian Bureau of Statistics revealed that 2.5million Aussies – or 21 per cent of the population – were working from home in 2021 (stock image)

Balmain, in Sydney’s inner west, was the suburb in Australia that had the highest number of residents working from home at a whopping 68 per cent.

In terms of cities, Sydney led the country at 39 per cent, followed by Melbourne, at 29 per cent. 

Fitzroy North had the highest number of people working from home in Melbourne, with 55 per cent away from the office in 2021. 

In terms of professions, Australians who were employed in financial and insurance services worked from home the most out of any job in the country with 66 per cent away from the office in 2021.

This was a massive jump from the six per cent recorded in the 2016 data.

Professional, scientific and technical services were second, at 55 per cent, while information, media and telecommunications was third, at 52 per cent. 

Rounding out the bottom of the list was food and accommodation services at four per cent.

The agriculture, forest and fishing industry had the most people working from home in 2016 at 27 per cent however the sector only experienced a one per cent jump in people staying away from the office by 2021.

Breaking down the data, employees in the financial and insurance services sector were the most likely to be working from home at 66 per cent. Sydney was the city with the most people working from home at 39 per cent (stock image)

Australian demographer Bernard Salt said the latest ABS data showed that working from home would become increasingly normalised in working life for many industries. 

‘Five years earlier, work from home was a mere curiosity amid the census’s 60-plus questions. Barely five per cent of the workforce – in “normal times” – worked from home,’ he wrote in a piece for The Australian. 

Mr Salt suggested the reason working from home ‘never took off’ before the Covid pandemic was because of a ‘cultural blockage’ – where it was viewed in Australian workplaces as ‘a bit of a day off’. 

‘It took a pandemic sustained across two to three years mandating workers to work from home for this movement to gain traction,’ he said. 

‘The WFH numbers might rise and fall over time depending on the demand for labour, but based on newly released census data it is evident work from home is now an integral part of the Australian way of life.’ 

The percentage of Australians working from home by profession and city 

PROFESSION 

1. Financial and Insurance Services – 66 per cent

2. Professional, Scientific and Technical Services – 55 per cent

3. Information, Media and Telecommunications – 52 per cent

4. Rental, Hiring and Real Estate Services – 32 per cent

5. Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing – 28 per cent 

 CITY

1. Greater Sydney – 39 per cent

2. Greater Melbourne – 29 per cent

3. Castlemaine – 26 per cent 

4. Byron Bay – 26 per cent

5. Wollongong – 25 per cent 

 

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