UK: Increase In Homeworkers Good for the Domestic Cat

There has been a 13% increase in people working at home over the past 5 years.  There were just over 4,000,000 in 2012.  That represents a rise of 470,000 since 2007.  An increasing number of women are working from home.  The majority of home working jobs created over the past 5 years have gone to women.  This is because most of the new jobs are part-time.

All this has happened during the recession which is surprising.  This new way of working is becoming essential to the UK labour market.  I'm told that people work more productively at home. There are no office politics to contend with for a start.  That might help.

For me, being interested as I am in the welfare of a domestic cat, this trend in the labour market should benefit the domestic cat.  Very many cats are left at home, alone during the daytime as their human caretaker goes to work and many of those caretakers are single women.

As more women are working at home it would imply that there are more women spending more time with their cats at home during the working week.

Bearing in mind that cats can become stressed was left alone at home and they can suffer from separation anxiety.  Stress can lead to health problems such as cystitis.  Stress can also lead to marking territory (defecating and urinating outside the litter tray). I'm just touching on this subject but it can be seen that the increase in home workers should be a good thing for cat lovers and cats alike.

There is one modern profession which I'm told is well known for people who like to keep cats and have them around them and on their desk when they work.  I also presume that these people often work at home.  They are game developers.  Code writers.  There are almost certainly nearly always young men so it's quite nice on two counts namely that we have men liking cats which goes against the grain slightly (so we are told) and we have men working at home with their cats around them keeping them company.