People working from home included a larger number of younger, diverse, and better educated employees, who were more likely to move than before the worst part of the COVID-19 pandemic, survey data from the US Census Bureau showed.
The share of the US labor force working from home went from 5.7 percent in 2019 to 17.9 percent in 2021, as restrictions were implemented to help slow the spread of the virus, a report released last week based on American Community Survey data showed.
“The increase in home-based workers corresponded with a decline in drivers, carpoolers, transit riders and most other types of commuters,” the report said.
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The share of people working from home between ages 25 and 34 jumped from 16 percent to 23 percent from 2019 to 2021. The share of home-based workers who were black jumped from 7.8 percent to 9.5 percent, and from 5.7 percent to 9.6 percent for Asian workers. It remained flat for Hispanic workers, the report said.
The share of home-based workers with a college degree also jumped from about half to more than two-thirds, and people working from home were more likely to have moved in the past year than commuters.
The two industry groups that saw the greatest jumps in people working from home were in information fields, where it went from 10.4 percent to 42 percent, and finance, insurance and real estate going from 10.8 percent to 38.4 percent. Professional and administrative services went from 12.6 percent to 36.5 percent.
The smallest gains were in agriculture and mining, entertainment and food services, and armed forces.
While every income level saw jumps in people working from home, those in the highest income bracket were most likely to make the change. While the number doubled from 2019 to 2021 for workers in the lowest income bracket, it tripled for those in the highest, the report said.
Home-based work also varied by region. By 2021, it was more prevalent in the west and northeast US, making up about a fifth of the workforce, compared with 16.2 percent in the south and 15.8 percent in the US Midwest.
The variation might have been caused by the availability of Internet access, the cluster of information technology jobs on the coasts and the way people commute, whether by vehicle or public transportation, the report said.
The tech-heavy San Francisco and San Jose metropolitan areas had more than one-third of their labor force working from home in 2021 — the largest share among metros with more than 1 million residents.
Since most COVID-19 pandemic restrictions have been lifted since the 2021 survey was taken, it is unknown if the growth in work-from-home is permanent.
“If only temporarily, the COVID-19 pandemic generated a massive shift in the way people in the United States related to their workplace location,” the report said.
“With the centrality of work and commuting in American life, the widespread adoption of home-based work was a defining feature of the pandemic era,” it added.
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