New data show broad shift to remote work during pandemic

In 2021, 27.6 million people reported primarily working from home nationwide, up from 9 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, Colo.; the San Francisco Bay Area; Washington, D.C.; Austin, Texas; Raleigh, N.C., 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, La.; Bakersfield, Calif., and Wichita, Kan., less than 10% of employees worked from home.

Transit habits changed slightly, too, as workers got used to the new pandemic normal. Nearly 105 million people drove to work solo in 2021, down from 119 million in 2019. The number of people riding mass transit to work fell by more than half, to 3.8 million in 2021. Other modes of commuting—including carpooling, cycling or walking—also dropped in popularity, with one exception: in 2021, some 2.3 million people took a taxi, motorcycle or other means to work, up 4.1% from 2019.

Overall, the average travel time to work for those not primarily at home dropped two minutes, to 25.6 minutes.

Research by economists using a different survey shows that remote work adoption has persisted in 2022, despite a broad-based opening up of the U.S. economy after the most acute phase of the Covid pandemic.

From April to August of 2022, about 30% of days were worked from home, compared with less than 5% before the pandemic, according to research by economists Jose Maria Barrero of Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México, Stanford’s Nicholas Bloom, and Steven J. Davis of the University of Chicago. That share has come down steadily since May 2020, when more than 60% of days worked were remote. However, the figure has held steady since the spring of 2022, said Mr. Bloom—despite recent campaigns by many employers to get staff to work from the office more often.

“A few high-profile firms talk in the media about pushing for greater return to the office after Labor Day, but the data shows no overall impact," he said. He added that the post-Labor Day push for a return to the office in both 2020 and 2021 failed to bring that share down—and that, so far, this year looks no different.

“Labor Day 2022 is looking to be completely flat," said Mr. Bloom. “This is 3-0 to employees vs. employers in the battle to keep working from home."

Private-sector data also point to a new equilibrium in the balance between remote and in-person work. Office occupancy across 10 major U.S. cities was 43.4% of March 2020 levels, on average, in early September, according to data from security provider Kastle Systems, which tracks badge swipes.

Searches for job ads involving remote work on Indeed.com were 9.1% of all searches in August, nearly five times the share in February 2020. Around 8.8% of job postings on Indeed.com last month advertised remote work, up from 2.7%, on average, in 2019.

“The factors that led to the immediate mass adoption of remote work have receded, but we’re still seeing remote work endure" said Nick Bunker, economic research director for North America at the Indeed Hiring Lab. “Now maybe there’s some shift from fully remote to hybrid, but the remote positions on offer are still pretty abundant."