Teleworking

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    Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS)

    OVERVIEW

    The survey examined the frequency of people teleworking and the travel distance savings of employees through teleworking. By linking teleworking to travel distance savings the data can be used by the clients as part of their examination into the impact that teleworking has on reduced traffic congestion and associated costs to business in delays, including associated costs to the community through decreased pollution.

    Teleworking is one strategy which contributes to the National Greenhouse Strategy's Greenhouse Gas Abatement Program aimed at improving air quality. This strategy is important to several state government departments, including the NSW Premier's Department and the NSW Roads and Traffic Authority.

    The information will also be used to look at the economic, budgetary and social benefits of teleworking which in turn relate to costs to businesses in travel delays, costs to the community in environmental pollution, gains to business and Government in increased productivity and reduced absenteeism.

    In addition, clients are concerned with the current and likely future impact of teleworking on road traffic. The total amount of vehicle kilometres travelled on NSW roads has been increasing at a large rate for a number of years. It is the policy of the NSW Government to reduce this rate of increase and teleworking is seen as part of the strategy to achieve this. This survey would help to provide information on the overall reduction in kilometres travelled as a result of teleworking.

    Another use of this data is to estimate the contribution of teleworking to the NSW economy (in terms of numbers of hours worked in particular in the knowledge based subsector). The data is necessary to evaluate:

    - the advantages and disadvantages of teleworking for the NSW economy

    - the possible benefits to regional areas of teleworking

    - whether the NSW government should be facilitating teleworking.

    PURPOSE

    Survey data collected will assist Government to plan for the future in areas of travel demand management, transport planning, urban planning, environment planning and regional development.

    The survey was requested by the NSW Roads and Traffic Authority.

    Other potential users of the data are:

    - Department of State and Regional Development

    - Premier's Department

    - Department of Urban Affairs and Planning

    - Department of Transport

    - Environmental Protection Authority

    SCOPE

    The survey was conducted for all usual residents of private dwellings aged 15 years and over, except:

    • members of the permanent defence forces;
    • certain diplomatic personnel of overseas governments, customarily excluded from census and estimated populations;
    • overseas residents in Australia; and
    • members of non-Australian defence forces (and their dependants) stationed in Australia.

    Information was collected by either face-to-face or telephone interview from one responsible adult per household. This survey was conducted using seven-eighths of the full sample of private dwellings in New South Wales that were included in the Monthly Population Survey.

    In the survey, coverage rules were applied which aimed to ensure that each persons was associated with only one dwelling hence had only one chance of selection in the survey.

    DATA DETAIL

    Conceptual framework

    The collection was conducted as a supplement to the ABS Monthly Population Survey (MPS) in October 2001. Information was collected from households and persons living in private dwellings throughout New South Wales. As well as the standard MPS output, information collected includes:

    Telework

    - Whether telework

    - Type of teleworking arrangement e.g formal or informal

    - Reasons for teleworking, including increased productivity

    Use of technology

    - Whether use technology at home while teleworking

    - What technology is used

    - Whether technology is provided by employer

    Frequency of teleworking

    - Number of whole days

    - Number of part days

    - Whether teleworking during standard business hours

    Travel

    - Travel mode to work

    - Distance to work

    - Length of travel time to work

    - Whether share car journey with others

    - Whether car is used on teleworking days

    - Distance saved through teleworking (derived item)

    Sector

    - Public or private sector or other

    Growth in teleworking

    - If teleworking, whether would like to telework more often

    - If not teleworking, whether would like to commence teleworking

    - Reasons why people are not currently teleworking

    - Problems preventing people from teleworking more

    Main outputs

    Publication: Teleworking, New South Wales (ABS Cat No. 1373.1)

    Classifications

    Standard Classifications were used for Labour Force variables, i.e:

    • Sex - male, female
    • Region - Formed by aggregation of standard statistical divisions. Minimum level in publication - Sydney, Balance of NSW
    • Age - Formed by aggregation of standard 5 year age groupings. Minimum level in publication - 15-24, 25-34, 35-44, 45-54, 55+
    • Labour Force Status - Employed, Unemployed, Not in the labour force

    Other concepts (summary)

    Not Applicable

    GEOGRAPHIC DETAIL
    New South Wales
    Part of State Metropolitan
    Part of State Extra-Metropolitan

    Comments and/or Other Regions

    Not applicable

    COLLECTION FREQUENCY
    Once Only

    Frequency comments

    It is not planned to run another Teleworking survey.

    COLLECTION HISTORY

    One-off State Supplementary survey

    DATA AVAILABILITY
    Yes

    Data availability comments

    Data is available in the publication Teleworking, New South Wales (ABS Cat No. 1373.1). Customised data services are available to clients on request.


    DATE OF LAST UPDATE FOR THIS DOCUMENT
    13/05/2002 11:51 AM