Is Ireland becoming a nation of shedworkers?

An interesting piece in the Irish Independent by Mark Keenan suggests that the economic downturn is "transforming Ireland into a nation of self-employed entrepreneurs who are increasingly working from home". Dublin based Bizquip, an Irish-owned supplier of office equipment, says supplies to home offices are rising fast, with homeworkers accounting for 15% of their furniture supply business. Bizquip owner and CEO Jim Leyden told Keenan:

"Particularly high demand has come from professionals in the 45 to 55 age group who have been either made redundant or have taken early retirement and have started working from home. They're either based in a box room in the house, converted a garage or else built a dedicated office in their gardens."

Sean Brett, owner of Galway-based shed outbuilding company Steeltech (pictured above is one of their shedworking designs) added that their garden office business had increased tenfold in the last six years. He told the paper:

"A return to home working after redundancy has certainly been a factor but we're finding that most of our home office buildings are going to self-employed individuals renting a small office in a commercial building but who are planning to base themselves at home to save on rent. Demand also comes from people who have retrained and are putting buildings in their gardens in which to offer counselling, therapy or sports massage."

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