More Americans working from home

Internet allows more freedom

Matt Dietrichson, Oct 15, 12.

New technologies are allowing an increasing number of Americans to work from home, and especially so in some geographic regions, according to The Atlantic Cities:

Aided by internet technologies like Skype and Dropbox, more Americans than ever before are choosing to forgo formal offices in favor of working from home.

A U.S. Census Bureau report [PDF] released this month examines the metros with the highest concentrations of people who work out of their home, finding increasing levels nationally and slight, but notable, geographic differences.

Nationally, the number of workers responding that they worked exclusively at home increased by 1.8 percentage points (4.8 percent to 6.6 percent) from 1997 to 2010, according to the report. Workers who reported that they worked at least one day per week at home increased from 7.0 percent in 1997 to 9.5 percent in 2010. Just under half of those who work at home were also self-employed, while a quarter were from management, business, and finance occupations.

The map below, from the report, charts the geographic breakdown of workers who work from home by metro area.

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First off, working from home is modestly associated with larger, denser metros (with correlations of .22 to population and .30 to density).

Working from home is more likely in metros with higher wages (.42) and incomes (.40), as well as those with higher housing costs (with a correlation of .51 to median monthly housing costs).

Working from home is more common in knowledge-based metros, being associated with the share of the workforce in knowledge, professional and creative jobs (.37) and even more so with the share of adults that hold college degrees (.50). Working from home is also associated with the concentration of high-tech industry (.34) and levels of innovation (.42, measured as patents per workers). The way workers commute factors in as well.
Working from home is closely associated with the share of commuters who bike to work (.51) and negatively associated with the share of commuters who drive to work by car (-.50).
Finally, working from home is associated with higher levels of happiness and well-being (measured by Gallup surveys with a correlation of .50). This is not surprising since long commutes by car are one of those things that takes the biggest negative toll on our happiness.

The combination of improved technology, congested highways and higher oil prices means the trend to working at home is likely to increase in the future.