Please cite GlobalWorkplaceAnalytics.com when you use this data
Reporters: We are constantly updating our database of over 4,000 documents on telework/telecommuting, alternative workplace strategies, workplace flexibility, and employee wellness/and well-being ROI. Please call or email kate-at-globalworkplaceanalytics.com, 760-703-0377 (Pacific Time) for the latest data or for additional information (such as regional data, demographic breakdowns, breakdowns by class of worker).
Updated June, 2017
Below are the latest statistics on the work-at-home/telework population in the U.S. based on an analysis of 2005-2015 American Community Survey (US Census Bureau) data conducted by GlobalWorkplaceAnalytics.com. Similar state and county data are available through 2015.
Overview
- 50% of the US workforce holds a job that is compatible with at least partial telework and approximately 20-25% of the workforce teleworks at some frequency
- 80% to 90% of the US workforce says they would like to telework at least part time. Two to three days a week seems to be the sweet spot that allows for a balance of concentrative work (at home) and collaborative work (at the office).
- Fortune 1000 companies around the globe are entirely revamping their space around the fact that employees are already mobile. Studies repeatedly show they are not at their desk 50-60% of the time.
- A typical telecommuter is college-educated, 45 years old or older, and earns an annual salary of $58,000 while working for a company with more than 100 employees. 75% of employees who work from home earn over $65,000 per year, putting them in the upper 80th percentile of all employees, home or office-based.
Summary of trends:
- Regular work-at-home, among the non-self-employed population, has grown by 115% since 2005, nearly 10x faster than the rest of the workforce.
- 3.7 million employees (2.8% of the workforce) now work from home at least half the time.
- The employee population as a whole grew by 1.9% from 2013 to 2014, while employees who telecommuter population grew 5.6%.
- Forty percent more U.S. employers offered flexible workplace options than they did five years ago. Still, only 7% make it available to most of their employees.
- Larger companies are most likely to offer telecommuting options to most of their employees.
- New England and Mid-Atlantic region employers are the most likely to offer telecommuting options.
- Full-time employees are four times more likely to have work-at-home options than part-time workers.
- Non-union workers are twice as likely to have access to telecommuting, but union employee access is growing rapidly.
Click here our latest report for more details.
- State and local telecommuting numbers
- Telecommuter demographics (gender, age, education, private/public sector, industry, income, etc.)
- Global and U.S. drivers of telework
- Obstacles to telework
- Advantages and disadvantages for employers/employees
- Industry contacts/potential interviewees
- Global and regional trends
- Workplace flexibility and its impact on employee well-being
- Who wants to telework, who can, who offers it, where teleworkers work
- Other agile and distributed workplace trends
About Global Workplace Analytics:
- An answer to the question, “Why there are so many wide-ranging estimates of the size of the teleworker population?”
- Our Workplace Savings Calculator™ that allows employers and others estimate the employer, employee, and environmental impact of various workplace strategies including telework
- Our sister site with resources for individual looking for home-based work
- Our 27-page white paper, The State of Telework in the U.S. and other white papers offer in depth analyses of the data below and more. Note: some of our reports include data that is older than the data here; please refer to this page for the most recent information. News reporters may call or email for the very latest numbers.
- Estimate your employee, employer and environmental mobile work savings potential: You can estimate your own potential savings from mobile work with our free Workplace Savings Calculator™.
Who Telecommutes? Telecommuter Demographics (updated 3-15-2016):
- A typical telecommuter is older (50+), college educated, salaried, non-union employee.
- Relative to the total population, a disproportionate share of employees in the following occupations telecommute (in order of largest disproportion to smallest):
- Military
- Computer and Mathematical
- Arts, Design, Entertainment, Sports, and Media Occupations
- Farming, Fishing, and Forestry
- Life, Physical, and Social Science Occupations
- Legal Occupations
- Community and Social Service Occupations
- Architecture and Engineering Occupations
- Business and Financial
- Using home as a ‘reasonable accommodation’ per the Americans with Disabilities Act, 463,000 disabled employees regularly work from home (7.1% of the disabled).
- Non-exempt employees are far less likely to work at home on a regular or ad hoc basis than salaried employees.
- Larger companies are more likely to allow telecommuting than smaller ones.
- Non-union organizations are more likely to offer telecommuting those with unions.
What Is the Potential Bottom Line Impact or Return on Investment of the Widespread Adoption of Telework in the U.S.? (updated March, 2016)
- If those with compatible jobs and a desire to work from home did so just half the time (roughly the national average for those who do so regularly) the national savings would total over $700 Billion a year including:
- A typical business would save $11,000 per person per year
- The telecommuters would save between $2,000 and $7,000 a year
- The greenhouse gas reduction would be the equivalent of taking the entire New York State workforce permanently off the road.
- The Congressional Budget Office’s estimate of the entire five-year cost of implementing telework throughout government ($30 million) is less than a third of the cost of lost productivity from a single day shut down of federal offices in Washington DC due to snow ($100 million).
The latest telework savings numbers are summarized here (these may not match those in the white papers as they have been updated with recent data).
For details about how these telework savings were calculated, and for similar information regarding telework in the Federal Government, U.K. and Canada, download our free white papers.
Additional Information on Telework / Telecommuting Trends / Statistics / Costs & Benefits
Reporters: We are constantly updating our database of over 4,000 documents on telework, office hoteling, activity-based work, co-working, work at home, and other emerging workplace strategies, and workplace flexibility. Please call or email for the latest data or for additional information (kate-at-globalworkplaceanalytics.com, 760-703-0377 Pacific Time).
About: Kate Lister is president of Global Workplace Analytics, a consulting and research firm that focuses on the business case for emerging workplace strategies. Global Workplace Analytics is based in San Diego, California.
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