Number of worldwide mobile workers to touch 1 billion: Study

By Mickey Alam Khan

January 16, 2008

Stacy Sudan, IDC

New research from IDC claims that the number of mobile workers worldwide is projected to reach 1 billion by 2011.

Pressure on companies to offer work/life balance programs for staff combined with advances in mobile technology is the reason for the shift toward flexibility and mobility. In fact, three-quarters of the U.S. workforce will be mobile by the end of 2011.

“The generation that is entering the workforce now expects to be able to have some level of mobility in their job and tends to have a high comfort level with technology in general, including remote access technologies and mobile devices,” said Stacy Sudan, research analyst for mobile enterprise software at IDC, Framingham, MA.

This change is also spurring companies to deploy mobile services as a differentiator from competitors as well as cut back on office-space requirements.

An estimated 68 percent of the U.S. workforce was mobile in 2006 – the highest percentage in the world. However, Japan will overtake the United States by the end of 2011 with 80 percent of its workforce mobile, up from 53 percent in 2006.

The results were published in IDC’s “Worldwide Mobile Worker 2007-2011 Forecast and Analysis” study.

IDC expects the trend toward mobility will continue across industries.

“Enterprises continue to deploy mobility solutions to meet both horizontal and vertical industry needs,” Ms. Sudan said. “The proliferation of high-speed networks, widespread public Wi-Fi hotspots and fixed-mobile convergence technology now allows employees to work effectively from almost anywhere.”