New study shows remote workers in Canada get a lot of extra productive time

Working from home is saving commuters in Canada 65 minutes a day, a new study shows.

The study was published by the National Bureau of Economic Research this month and involved a team of economists who calculated daily commute times using surveys of workers across 27 countries worldwide.

According to the study, the average daily time saved when working from home is 72 minutes based on data from 27 countries.

When accounting for the incidence of work from home across all people (including those who never work remotely), the study found that working from home saved about two hours per week per worker in 2021 and 2022.

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For a full-time worker, this amounts to 2.2% of a 46-hour work week (40 paid hours plus six hours commuting).

The study found that on average, people who work from home devote 40% of their time savings to primary and secondary jobs, 34% to leisure, and 11% to caregiving activities.

In Canada, people who work from home spend 41% of their time savings on primary or secondary jobs, 37% on leisure, and 7% on caregiving.

When compared to other countries, Canada’s average daily time savings when working from home were similar to Germany (65 minutes), Hungary (66 minutes), Spain (63 minutes), and France (62 minutes).

In comparison, remote workers in the United States saved about 55 minutes a day.

The top countries with the most daily time savings when working from home are:

1. China — 102 minutes
2. Japan — 100 minutes
3. India — 99 minutes
4. Singapore — 94 minutes
5. South Korea — 86 minutes
6. Brazil — 82 minutes
7. Australia — 78 minutes
8. Netherlands — 77 minutes
9. Egypt, UK, and Russia — 73 minutes