There's an ongoing debate about whether mobile technology really delivers big business benefits, or if its impact has been overblown. Now a new study about its impact on Australia makes it clear: The benefits are very real, and they're very big, an estimated $43 billion in 2015, according to the study.
The "Mobile Nation: Driving Workforce Participation and Productivity" study, prepared by Deloitte Access Economics and commissioned by the Australian Mobile Telecommunications Association (AMTA), found that mobile technologies led to the Australian economy being $42.9 billion larger than it would have been if the technologies hadn't been used. That's made up of $34 billion in long-term productivity, and $8.9 billion generated by additional workforce participation. Those are particularly large numbers when you consider their percentage of the Australian economy: A combined 2.6% of GDP.
Increased workforce participation because of mobile
Mobile technologies have increased workforce participation because they allow people to work remotely and to meet personal commitments when they're at work, the study concludes. It found that:
- A total of 65,000 full-time equivalent jobs were supported by the increased GDP attributed to workforce participation, which is equivalent to 1% of the Australian economy's total employment.
- People surveyed work 0.6 more hours a week because of the benefits of mobile technology
- Twenty-nine percent of people say they work from home at least some of the time
- Almost 15% of people would be working fewer hours if they could not work remotely
Read an article from ITWire about the report. Download the full report.
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