Number of Americans Working Remotely Tripled from 2019 to 2021

New York, NY, September 15, 2022-"The number of Americans working remotely more than tripled in 2021 from 2019, according to new federal data, and the trend shows signs of persisting this year,” reports the Wall Street Journal.

“In 2021, 27.6 million people reported primarily working from home nationwide, up from nine million in 2019, according to new 2021 American Community Survey estimates released Thursday by the Census Bureau. In percentage terms, that translated to 17.9% of employees who worked mainly remotely in 2021, compared with 5.7% in 2019. The vast majority of these are likely white-collar jobs; in many occupations such as those involving in-person customer interactions or operating machines, remote work isn’t an option.

“Some metropolitan areas saw a far bigger share embrace remote work than the national average. More than 30% of workers in the metros of Boulder, Colorado; the San Francisco Bay area; Washington, D.C.; Austin, Texas; Raleigh, North Carolina, and Seattle said they worked primarily from home. In some smaller cities, the share of remote workers undershot the national average. For example, in Baton Rouge, Louisiana; Bakersfield, California, and Wichita, Kansas, less than 10% of employees worked from home.”