No Commute? Americans Who Work at Home

Have you noticed more of your colleagues, friends, and family have been working from home? Well, a Census Bureau report released last week titled “Home-Based Workers in the U.S: 2010” has found an upward trend in home-based work rates.

During a typical week in 2010, 13.4 million people worked at least one full workday at home. From 1997 to 2010, the number of people who worked at least one day a week at home increased by about 4.2 million, or from 7.0 percent of all employed people to 9.5 percent.

The report uses the strengths of two surveys that estimate home-based workers, the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) and the American Community Survey (ACS), to study trends in home-based work over the last decade. According to both surveys, a growing number of Americans are working at least some of the workweek at home. Yet, each survey provides unique information about the characteristics of these workers. Home-based workers are most likely to work from home on Mondays and Fridays.  On average, they are older, more highly educated, more likely to be self-employed.

For more information, please visit the news release and report.