Self-employed lead homework revolution

Developments in technology has led to a sharp rise in the number of people working from home but the majority are self-employed, official figures reveal.

As of spring 2005, 2.4 million employees or 8% of the UK workforce could be defined as teleworkers - those who use phones and computers to work mainly from home, the Office of National Statistics (ONS) said.

In 1997, when data was first collected, there was 921,000 teleworkers.

The majority of homeworkers, ONS said, worked in different places using their home as a base while 603,000 worked almost entirely from home.

Most teleworkers were managers or senior officials, while the practice was most prevalent in the East, London, South East and South West.

Working from home, however, is most popular with the self employed. Although making up a relatively small proportion of the overall workforce, 62% of teleworkers were self-employed, the report found.