iGR defines a mobile worker as any employee who is out of the office more than 20 percent of the work week. Some characteristics of mobile workers include:
A need to be in voice/data contact with customers and/or colleagues during the work day.
Performs a job function which requires them to travel more than 20 percent of the work week either in their building, on their corporate campus, in their metro area, in their region or nationally and/or internationally.
None of these attributes necessarily require the worker to use a mobile device or wireless data network (WAN or LAN) provided by the organization for which they work. A worker can be “mobile” without needing to use a wireless device; nurses, maids and janitors are good examples. Moreover, many "white collar" workers often deal with work-related issues on their own mobile devices and/or PCs.
In this report, on the basis of its own proprietary research and surveys and a variety of government data sources, iGR estimates and forecasts the number of mobile workers in the U.S.
Note that this updated version of iGR's mobile worker forecast:
Accounts for the estimated four million jobs lost due to the current recession.
Includes the Educational Services and Government sectors, but still excludes the Agriculture sector. This makes it a “non farm” sizing and forecast.
Assumes that the U.S. economy will begin to recover in 2010 and assumes that the most recently reported unemployment rate (8.9%) at the time of this writing remains the unemployment rate for the remainder of 2009 and that it begins to decline in 2010. These assumptions are not certainties, of course. It is impossible to make any predictions regarding unemployment or macroeconomic recovery, especially since the current unemployment rate already exceeds one forecast but is below another (~10%).
This report will discuss the assumptions used to generate the mobile worker forecast and provide a per-sector forecast.
