From potential to practice: a new framework for assessing job resilience in lockdowns

This article presents a novel Work-From-Home (WFH) index constructed from Danish Labour Force Survey (LFS) data to evaluate the prevalence of remote work across job types during pandemic-related restrictions. Unlike existing indices, such as the Home-Office Index (HOI), which estimates the theoretical potential of occupations’ remote work, and the Lockdown Index (LDI), which assesses the feasibility of working without physical proximity, the WFH index is grounded in actual reported behaviour. By focusing on observed work patterns rather than hypothetical task assessments, the WFH index reduces uncertainty and reveals greater variation across occupations and sectors. The results show that the WFH index has a more uniform distribution than HOI, and it is complementary to LDI. When applying the indices to Danish administrative data, regression analyses reveal differences in demographic and socioeconomic characteristics when accounting for residential location and economic sector. The index uses ISCO and NACE sector classifications, ensuring global applicability.