Teleworkers’ digital up-skilling: Evidence from the spring 2020 lockdown

Laetitia Hauret (), Ludivine Martin () and Nicolas Poussing ()
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Laetitia Hauret: LISER - Luxembourg Institute of Socio-Economic Research
Ludivine Martin: CREM - Centre de recherche en économie et management - UNICAEN - Université de Caen Normandie - NU - Normandie Université - UR - Université de Rennes - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, LISER - Luxembourg Institute of Socio-Economic Research, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) Bonn
Nicolas Poussing: CREM - Centre de recherche en économie et management - UNICAEN - Université de Caen Normandie - NU - Normandie Université - UR - Université de Rennes - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, LISER - Luxembourg Institute of Socio-Economic Research

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Abstract: During the spring 2020 COVID-19 lockdown, the proportion of employees who worked from home increased sharply, which increased the use of digital tools. In this context, we study how teleworkers improved their digital skills. More specifically, we ask whether the lockdown was an opportunity for teleworkers to increase their digital skills and whether some subgroups with traditionally lower digital skills (women, older workers, and less educated) have benefited from a catch-up effect. Using a sample of 438 employees working for firms located in Luxembourg, our empirical analysis shows, first, that three out of ten teleworkers felt that they improved their digital skills during the lockdown and, second, that the lockdown helped to reduce the gender and age digital skill gap but broaden the educational digital skill gap. Third, training and more frequent use of many digital tools during the lockdown are positively related to the digital upskilling feeling, but not for all subgroups of teleworkers studied. Finally, the feeling of digital upskilling is inverted U-shaped in the number of digital tools discovered during the lockdown, but not for all subgroups of teleworkers studied.

Keywords: lockdown; work from home; digital tools; upskilling; catch-up effect (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://hal.science/hal-04574761
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Published in Information Society, 2024, 40 (3), pp.215-231. ⟨10.1080/01972243.2024.2333025⟩

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:hal-04574761

DOI: 10.1080/01972243.2024.2333025

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