Top 10 U.S. cities with the most telecommuters
Workers in the Unites States are increasingly using their homes as their offices. They save money, connect virtually with colleagues, and hold regular (very important) meetings their cat co-worker (or is that just me?).
Between 1997 and 2010 the number of people working exclusively at home rose by 1.8 percent (from 4.8 percent to 6.6 percent). And it wasn't just from more self-employed people working from home. A majority of the increase came from private wage, salary, and government workers setting up shop at home.
But where are these trends away from traditional office settings most prominent? Richard Florida at The Atlantic Cities points to these new statistics from the U.S. Census Bureau which also show the metropolitan regions that had the largest share of employees that worked from home in 2010. Here's the top 10:
- Boulder, Colorado (10.9%)
- Medford, Oregon (8.4%)
- Santa, Fe, New Mexico (8.3%)
- Kingston, New York (8.1%)
- Santa Rosa, California (7.9%)
- Mankato, Minnesota (7.7%)
- Prescott, Arizona (7.6%)
- St. Cloud, Minnesota (7.6%)
- Athens, Georgia (7.5%)
- Austin, Texas (7.3%)
The Census Bureau found that most metros saw an increase in people working from home between 2005 and 2010. But it was in the Southeast, Southwest, and West regions where there were the largest percentages of home-based workers.
Some other notable statistics from the Census Bureau report:
- More occasional telecommuters: The percentage of all workers who worked at least 1 day at home increased from 7.0 percent in 1997 to 9.5 percent in 2010.
- What kind of work?: 25 percent of home-based workers were in management, business, and financial occupations
- Increase in tech workers: Between 2000 and 2010 home-based workers in computer, engineering, and science occupations increased by 69 percent.
- Self-employed majority: Nearly half of home-based workers were self-employed.
- Long weekends?: For those workers who also go into a traditional office, the most popular days to work from home were Monday and Friday.
Florida also ran the numbers and found interesting correlation between telecommuting metros and metro that have a high rate bike commuters. There was also a significant negative correlation between telecommuters and places where people drive to work.
As he puts it, telecommuting is a trend we can expect to see more of:
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.
See what percentage of your city works from home.
[Via The Atlantic Cities]
Photo: Flickr/citrixonline
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This post was originally published on Smartplanet.com