Le télétravail à Bruxelles avant la crise de la Covid-19

In Belgium, as in many other parts of the worlds, several workers have been confronted with extensive telework during the Covid-19 pandemic. Initially enabled under labour markets’ flexibilisation and the advent of information and communication technologies, telework has expanded over time. However, the diversity of teleworkers’ profiles and their location remain under-researched. Our study aims to improve knowledge about the likeliness of part-time and intensive telework practices, before the Covid-19 crisis, in Belgium and Brussels. More specifically, we examined two research questions: who are the Belgian and Brussels’ intensive teleworkers, and how are all teleworkers (regardless of the intensity of their practice) spread on the national territory? To address these questions, we used individual data from the Belgian Labour Force Survey. We conducted a logistical regression to identify the explanatory variables of intensive telework before descriptive statistical processing to complete the teleworkers’ profiles (including part-time practices) and highlight the spatial dimension of telework. Our results underline the impact of various factors on telework, including education level, job occupation and home-work distance. We also show that both residents and workers of the Brussels’ Capital Region and its surroundings are more subject to telework. Our conclusions situate these findings in the pandemic context and reflect on the possible impact that an expansion of telework practices could have on Brussels’ attractiveness. Through this paper, we plead for a better consideration of telework in urban development policies. Also, we encourage the use of the Labour Force Survey as a relevant database for further research on telework.