And whilst we have yet to see any evidence of the increased incidence of working from home as being a dominant factor explaining the increase in labour force participation in Ireland, we should consider some of the potential longer term effects of the greater use of flexible working.
For example, we know that women are more likely to work from home than men.18 In Ireland, one-in-four workers now say they work ‘mainly from home’, up from just one-in-fourteen pre-pandemic.