Teleworking: an approach to its measurement using official labor surveys in Latin America

In this paper we propose a comparable measure of approximate teleworkers in Latin American countries using official labor surveys. To do this, we start from a review of the context and concept of teleworking that allows a better understanding of the matter. Then, we study the literature and propose a standard methodology, understanding teleworkers as homeworkers with occupations supported by Information and Communication Technologies (ICT). Finally, we apply our methodological proposal in Colombia, Brazil, and Argentina, finding that the conditions imposed by the pandemic seem to have increased levels of effective use of telework. However, the use of telework has not been “massive”, even in the face of the severity of the pandemic. We close the paper by exploring the characteristics of the approximate teleworkers, obtaining that they tend to be more female, have university education, and work in small firms; they also are slightly older than other workers.

Population Review

Volume 62, Number 2, 2023

Type: Article, pp. 35-59

Teleworking: an approach to its measurement using official labor surveys in Latin America

Authors: Yanira Marcela Oviedo Gil, Favio Ernesto Cala Vitery

Authors affiliations: Yanira Marcela Oviedo Gil – economist at Universidad del Valle and PhD student at University of Bogotá Jorge Tadeo Lozano. Favio Ernesto Cala Vitery – University of Bogotá Jorge Tadeo Lozano.

Corresponding author/address: Yanira Marcela Oviedo Gil, yaniram.oviedogil@utadeo.edu.co

Abstract

In this paper we propose a comparable measure of approximate teleworkers in Latin American countries using official labor surveys. To do this, we start from a review of the context and concept of teleworking that allows a better understanding of the matter. Then, we study the literature and propose a standard methodology, understanding teleworkers as homeworkers with occupations supported by Information and Communication Technologies (ICT). Finally, we apply our methodological proposal in Colombia, Brazil, and Argentina, finding that the conditions imposed by the pandemic seem to have increased levels of effective use of telework. However, the use of telework has not been “massive”, even in the face of the severity of the pandemic. We close the paper by exploring the characteristics of the approximate teleworkers, obtaining that they tend to be more female, have university education, and work in small firms; they also are slightly older than other workers.

Keywords

teleworking; telecommuting; labor populations; measurement

Declarations

This paper is part of the doctoral thesis research “Teleworking: prevalence, determinants and its relationship with
job quality” at the University of Bogotá Jorge Tadeo Lozano. Thesis Advisor: Professor Favio Cala.

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