Record number of Swedes are working outside the office this summer

Working outside the office continues to be a growing trend. Seven out of ten people in Sweden will work just as much, or more, outside the office this summer, compared with last year. The Swedes are taking longer and longer vacations and July is no longer the most popular month to take a holiday. These are some of the findings of a new Telia survey that polled 2,029 people working at companies in different parts of Sweden.

This summer 21 percent of the people in Sweden will work more outside the office than last year. This is a sharp increase, compared with 2004, when the corresponding figure was 11 percent. People living in the southwest of Sweden, in Skåne, are best at telecommuting: 74 percent polled in this part of Sweden said that they would work outside the office this summer some time during the summer. Only 23 percent replied that they will not telecommute at all, which is 30 percent fewer than in 2004. “This is a clear trend – more and more people want to work outside their workplace and this year a record number of Swedes are choosing to telecommute during the summer. The technology is available and many people have realized that it is easy to use,” says Erik Heilborn, head of the Business Segment at TeliaSonera Sweden. The older people are, the more popular it is to work outside the office. Seventy-three percent of the respondents who were older than 50 stated that they will telecommute as much, or more, than last year. However, young people are also becoming more and more interested in telecommuting – 26 percent of the respondents under the age of 35 said they will work more outside the office this summer. The figure was 19 percent for people in the 35 to 50 age bracket. Telecommuting is more common among men than women. Seventy-nine percent of the men in the survey said they will work as much, or more, outside the office, compared with only 50 percent of the women who were polled. New vacation period – July is “out” The Swedes are taking longer and longer vacations. Twenty-two percent of the respondents in the survey said they would take five weeks of vacation or more, compared with 16 percent in 2004. Among people living Stockholm twenty-eight percent of the people will take five weeks of vacation or more. July, which used to be a classic vacation month, has been replaced with “from the middle of July until the middle of August”. This year 42 percent will take their holiday from mid-July to mid-August and 39 percent will take their holiday in July. Last year, it was the other way around. However, most people living in the north of Sweden, in Norrland, still choose to take their holidays in July. - - - - - - - About Telia’s “Communications Barometer” for enterprises: In its “Communications Barometer” for enterprises, in the report titled “Swedes are working outside the office this summer”, 2,029 Swedes working at companies were polled about their summer plans. All of Sweden is represented in the survey. The respondents work at companies that are customers of Telia. The survey period was June 2-7, 2005. The complete report is available in Swedish.