At the onset of the coronavirus disease pandemic and the lockdowns it prompted, politicians and businesses began presenting the concept of working from home not just as a temporary solution, but as a potential fundamental change in the global economy and the future of work. In the first weeks of the pandemic, many studies were published citing the varied benefits of working from home, such as people saving hours on the daily commute, which they could spend with their families and thus restore the work-life balance that had long been upset. And, since transportation is one of the biggest causes of pollution and global warming, working from home was deemed to be good not just for us humans, but also good for the planet. Working from home is not a new concept. Even during the pre-industrial period there were millions of people who were gainfully employed in their own homes, such as through small entrepreneurial activities like stitching or embroidery. However, for more than two centuries now, a large part of the world has been involved in activities that make working from home impossible. With the rise of globalization in the 1990s and the resultant sharp growth in the services industry, the proportion of the global workforce in the services sector has jumped from about 34 percent in 1990 to just over 50 percent in 2019, according to the International Labor Organization (ILO). For a large part of the global population, especially those who work in domains such as farming, construction, mining, industry, transport, retail and hospitality, working from home is simply not possible. As the proportion of the population employed in these sectors is significantly higher in the developing world and poorer countries, the idea of working from home remains far-fetched there. Even in the most developed economies, working from home has significant limitations. The ILO estimates that, before the pandemic, about 260 million workers, or just under 8 percent of the global workforce, worked from home on a permanent basis. These are not just office workers, but also artisans, embroiders, beedi rollers, and self-employed business owners. Since the outbreak of the pandemic, the percentage of office staff working remotely has significantly increased in many countries. But companies have reported problems in adapting to telework due to various concerns, such as regulations or the confidentiality of information due to the potential for security breaches on unsecured home computers or networks. However, even in rich countries, remote working is just not an option for a large segment of the workforce. These include people employed by restaurants, hotels, airlines, health care facilities, shops and even those working as Uber drivers and couriers for companies such as Amazon. The list is endless. The US Labor Department found that only 132 out of 400 occupations it analyzed were identified as remote-work compatible. The closure of many businesses during the pandemic has left them without any income and dependent entirely on government handouts or their owners’ savings. However, the situation is grave in the developing world, where hundreds of millions of jobs have been lost and governments just do not have the wherewithal to provide meaningful support to the most vulnerable sections of society during the severe economic downturn brought about by the pandemic. A recent report by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) estimates that more than 100 million workers in 35 advanced and emerging economies are at high risk of unemployment as they are not able to do their jobs remotely. The report also highlighted that there are important differences across countries and even between workers in the same country. It found working from home to be easier in Norway and Singapore than in Turkey, Chile or Mexico. This is simply because more than half the households in most emerging and developing countries don’t even have a computer at home. The IMF report also found that young workers and those without a university education were less likely to be able to work remotely, while women could be particularly hard hit, which threatens to undo some of the progress made in gender equality in recent decades. This is because women are disproportionately concentrated in the most-affected sectors like food services and accommodation, besides carrying a heavier burden of child care and housework. Similarly, part-time workers and employees of small and medium-sized firms face a greater risk of job loss. In developing economies, in particular, part-timers and those in informal work face a dramatically higher risk of falling into poverty. In these economies, such workers constitute a majority of the workforce and there have been hundreds of millions of job losses that are not even accounted for by institutions like the IMF due to their surveying methods. The losers in all of this are those who are principally employed in the informal economy or are self-employed. Ranvir S. Nayar In India, for instance, more than 120 million workers lost their jobs in April alone, according to a survey by the Center for Monitoring the Indian Economy. It also pointed out that the full impact of the pandemic on the economy was yet to be felt and that the situation has already deteriorated significantly. Some projections say India’s economy could contract by as much as 9.5 percent this year — its biggest ever fall. Similar is the story in much of Latin America, where the economic contraction will also be particularly severe. The losers in all of this are those who are principally employed in the informal economy or are self-employed. The latest data is yet to be compiled but, back in April, Oxfam warned that, unless governments in developing countries intervened immediately, more than 500 million people could be pushed into poverty, undoing the gains of the past two decades. Indeed, this is happening in India, which managed to pull more than 270 million out of poverty in the 10 years from 2004. Now, at least half of these are believed to have slid back below the poverty line. Working from home is just not working for them, as it is a mere fantasy in their situation. Ranvir S. Nayar is the editor of Media India Group, a global platform based in Europe and India that encompasses publishing, communication and consultation services. Disclaimer: Views expressed by writers in this section are their own and do not necessarily reflect Arab News" point-of-view