More than half of Australia’s full-time employees now spend part of their week working from home, with the proportion sharply rising in the cities.

According to a recent study by Roy Morgan, over 6.7 million Australians, which represents 46% of the country’s workforce, engage in remote work at least part of the time.

That proportion rises to 51 per cent for full-time employees, and falls to 36 per cent for part-time employees.

Michele Levine, the CEO of Roy Morgan, stated, “These latest findings highlight that remote work has firmly established itself as a defining element of Australia’s employment landscape.”

The prevalence of remote work is most notable in major cities, with Sydney (55%), Melbourne (52%), and Canberra (51%) having the highest percentages of home-based workers.

That falls to below half in Brisbane (43 per cent), Adelaide, (44 per cent), Perth, (40 per cent), and Hobart (45 per cent).

In contrast, regional areas of Australia report lower remote work figures, with Queensland at the forefront (40%), followed by NSW (39%), Victoria (36%), the Northern Territory (34%), South Australia (33%), and Western Australia (31%).

Remote work is most prevalent in smaller settings such as solo entrepreneurs or self-employed individuals, with a 55% participation rate, while smaller businesses experience the lowest rates (38% for organizations with 5 to 24 employees).

Industries leading in remote work include finance and insurance (66%), communications (61%), property and business services (57%), and public administration and defense (56%).

By contrast, just 31 per cent of retail employees work from home, with other low-level sectors including recreation and personal services (37 per cent) and transport and storage (38 per cent).

Income also makes a difference, with work-from-home rates peaking at 64 per cent for those with a wage of $300,000 or more.

“Gaining an in-depth understanding of the nuances surrounding current ‘working from home’ trends across different cities, industries, workplace sizes and income bands is vital to understand as businesses, employees, and policymakers adapt to a rapidly changing workforce landscape,” Levine said.