More workers should be facilitated to work from home in order to improve their chances of retaining their jobs, according to the Economic and Social Research Institute.
In their report "Who Can Work From Home in Ireland", authors Paul Redmond and Seamus McGuinness note that 800,000 workers are currently unemployed or furloughed because of Covid-19.
But many others have been able to hold onto their jobs by working from home. The ESRI says it is important to understand the ability of employees to work from home because homeworking can limit job losses and the associated economic contraction.
Ensuring that as many people as possible continue to work from home may also help to prevent a further spike in the incidence of the virus, it finds.