Only a fraction of worldwide online employed adults always works from home. A larger group never worked from home and never expect to. The largest segment includes those who occasionally work from home, and most expect to be working from home in one year. With the COVID pandemic and ensuing economic changes, many employees worked from home for the first time. As the pandemic continues, there is a wide variation across regions and employers in their policies and support of working from home.
This MetaFAQs reports on how many employees worked from home before the pandemic, how many are currently working from home, and how many expect to be working from home in one year.
Work from home experience & purchase plans
Consumer sentiment for technology purchases has faltered with uncertainty around the economy. Also, many workers are unsure about their work from home status in the future.
This TUPdate reports on the purchase plans among online adults worldwide (US, Germany, UK, Japan, China) and in the US. Four types are split out based on their current work from home status and experience before the pandemic. It specifies their plans to acquire a computer, smartphone, tablet, smartwatch, item tracker, printer, smart home technology, and display/monitor.
Working from home – size of segments
How many workers work from home? How many already had experience working from home before the pandemic, and for how many is it a new experience?
This TUP analysis reports on the total number of full-time, part-time, and self-employed workers – and their work-from-home experience before and through the pandemic. The topline sizing details workers in the US, Germany, UK, and Japan. The analysis dives deeper into Americans by industry, employee role, employer size, and educational attainment.
Work follows employees home, although less so than last year
Home computers – those acquired with personal funds – are used by most employees for work-related activities. Americans and employees in Germany, the UK, Japan, and China peaked in 2021 and subsided in 2022. This MetaFAQs reports on employees using a home computer for work-related activities. It details the work activities with home computers, from communication to collaboration and productivity. As a historical contrast, it includes comparable results from the 1987 TUP/Technology User Profile wave.
Hybrid work from home arrangement likely to continue
Employees and employers have made some of the most substantial changes since the pandemic, with many quickly shifting to working from home. The most significant expansion has been in hybrid working arrangements, unlikely to change within a year. This MetaFAQs reports on online employees, their frequency of working from home before the pandemic, and their expectations in a year.
Device hours declined worldwide
During the COVID pandemic and its interruption to workplace patterns, online adults worldwide shifted how they use technology. Their total usage has declined, especially with computers. This MetaFAQs reports the four-year trend in the average weekly use of connected devices – computers, smartphones, and tablets.
Apple leads competitors in brand footprint dominance
Apple has continued its dominance of the brand footprint, with half of most online adults using at least one of their iPhones, Macs, or iPads. Market penetration for computer makers is shrinking.
This MetaFAQs reports on the percentage of online adults in the US, Germany, UK, Japan, and China who are using any smartphone, computer, tablet, or game console from Apple, Samsung, HP, Dell, Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo, Lenovo, Google, Acer, Asus, or LG.
Highlights: User Profile
Sociodemographically distinct groups vary in composition, technology devices and services, and how they use what they have. Most advantaged groups have bolstered their technology collection during the pandemic and increased their usage levels. Most disadvantaged segments, meanwhile, have used what they have at hand more so than acquiring newer technology. Older millennials have the wealthiest collection of technology devices, well above that of every other age group. This TUP Highlights report includes the following sections: usage segments, segments, and trends in segments.
Tablets – Highlights
Tablets continue to seek a solid home, major use cases, and most vital segments. Currently, the largest groups of users are passive, older, or entrenched in the Apple or Google ecosystem. While Apple continues to lead and increase its share, other makers like Samsung are seeing withering penetration. Incidental and passive activities from web browsing, shopping, movie-watching, and checking email haven’t been unique enough on tablets to entice users away from their smartphones or computers.
This TUP Highlights report includes the following sections: the profile of tablet users, trends in tablets, top tablet brands, top tablet activities, unique tablet activities, and trends in technology ecosystems.
Technology profile of American childless partnered employees aged 18-49
The COVID pandemic made clear many socioeconomic inequities between Americans, as the impact of the virus was felt differently in great part depending on their educational attainment, occupation, employment status, and other factors.
This TUPdate focuses on one segment – employed Americans aged 18 to 49 who have a married or unmarried partner and who do not have a child 17 or younger in their household – reporting their market size and profiling their usage of connected devices, which devices they do or don’t use, how much they use them, and the intensity of changes since before the pandemic.