More Canadians work from home offices

About 3.6 million Canadians have the luxury of wandering down the hallway in their pyjamas to start their work days,suggests a reportreleased Tuesday showing arise in home office use.

Statistics Canada's report says the number of people working at home is evenly split between the self-employed and thosepaid bycompanies. Together, they comprise 19 per cent of the workforce, up two per cent in eight years.

The greatest increase is in the number of self-employed people working at home. In 2008, when the study was conducted, there were 1.8 million, up from 1.4 million in 2000.

One of the greatest factors in determining who gets to work from home appears to be education.Fifty-four per cent of people working from home have a university degree, comparedto the 25 per cent who have a degree butnever work from home.

Another key factor is the individual's role within an organization.

Fifty-five per cent ofpeople working athome, at least occasionally,arein professional or management jobs, comparedto 23 per cent ofpeoplewho are in higher-ranking positions but never work from home, the study indicates.

The most common reason for working at home, cited by 25 per cent of employees,is that they're required to, and23 per cent said their homes provide better working conditions.

Just slightly more men than women work from home.