Economy

Uruguay, Chile, and Brazil are the Latin American countries most likely to expand remote work

Ipea study that replicates the University of Chicago methodology shows that 22.7% of Brazilian occupations could be carried out from home

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  • To reach this conclusion, Ipea examined 434 different types of occupations in the country, replicating a methodology from the University of Chicago, which developed a global ranking on remote work with 86 countries;
  • In this global ranking, Brazil would occupy the 47th position.

The “home office” way of working may reach 22.7% of the existing occupations in Brazil, something around 20.8 million people, according to a study by the Institute of Applied Economic Research (Ipea, in the acronym in Portuguese) released on the beginning of June. The study is signed by researchers Felipe Martins and Geraldo Góes, from Ipea, and José Antônio Sena, from the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE).

READ ALSO: Brazilian fintech Nubank says employees will work from home for the rest of 2020

To reach this conclusion, Ipea examined 434 different types of occupations in the country, replicating a methodology from the University of Chicago, which developed a global ranking on remote work with 86 countries.

In this global ranking, Brazil would occupy the 47th position. Considering only the 12 Latin American countries analyzed by the University of Chicago (Brazil, Bolivia, Chile, El Salvador, Ecuador, Guatemala, Guyana, Honduras, Mexico, Panama, Dominican Republic, and Uruguay), Brazil would occupy the third position, behind Chile (25.74%) and Uruguay (27.28%), which had the highest remote work percentage in this list.

READ ALSO: Brazilian startup QuintoAndar adopts home office until December

But this potential for remote work is not the same in all regions of Brazil. In the Federal District, the state with the highest average income, the percentage reaches 31.6%. São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro also have greater potential than the national average as well as the three Southern states. The rest of the country, though, has lower percentages than the average of 22.7%.

The study showed that the higher the income, the greater the conditions for investing in essential conditions to work remotely, such as equipment and Internet access.

In the world, Luxembourg, in Europe, is the country with the greatest potential for remote work: 53.4% of occupations. The lowest potential for teleworking among the 86 countries surveyed is in Mozambique, in Africa, with only 5.24%.

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