A billion mobile workers by 2011, says IDC

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A billion people will be working as they go by 2011, according to research by IDC.

The research firm said it expects the number of mobile workers worldwide to hit a billion by that year - up from over 758 million global mobile workers in 2006.

The increase will be driven by pressure on companies to offer better work-life balance for their employees and by technological advances such as high-speed networks, the spread of public wireless access and fixed-mobile convergence.

By the end of the year, some three-quarters of the US workforce will be mobile, the study showed - it's already at 68 per cent, IDC said. What's more, it's predicted that by 2012, more than 50 per cent of the UK workforce will be mobile.

Corporations - in the US and UK - will need to be ensure their IT systems are secure to access from outside their buildings, said one of the study authors. "Although mobility deployments can bring a number of benefits to companies, they also bring risks associated with sensitive data sitting on small devices that can be easily lost," said Stephen Drake, program director, Mobile Enterprise Services at IDC.

"Developing a plan around managing and securing devices should be part of any large mobility deployment," he added.

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