By Harley Frazis
Republished with permission of the US Bureau of Labor Statistics
Over the past two decades, data sources indicate an increase in the number of employees working at home. The American Community Survey shows a 115 percent increase over the period 2005-2017 in the number of workers who work from home at least half the time (Global Workplace Analytics, 2017), to about 3 percent of the 
workforce. Gallup estimates an increase in the proportion of workers who have ever telecommuted from 9 percent in 1995 to 37 percent in 2015 (Jones, 2015). The
American Time Use Survey (ATUS) estimates that the percentage of workers on a given day who work at home rose from 18.6 percent in 2003 to 23.7 percent in 2018, and that average hours per day worked at home for those who worked at home rose from 2.56 hours in 2003 to 2.94 hours in 2018. Work at home done for pay as part of an arrangement with the employer–hereafter “telecommuting”—has been of increased interest to policymakers and analysts in recent years. It has
been argued that telecommuting is family-friendly, allowing the flexibility to attend to the needs of children or elderly parents (Chartrand 1997, Trinko 2013). Moreover, commuting typically scores low on measures of subjective well-being (Kahneman and Krueger 2006, Krueger et al. 2009), so telecommuting allows for commuting time to be reallocated to higher-value activities. This paper uses the ATUS to examine telecommuting. With time diaries for a single day from approximately 10,000 respondents or more for every year from 2003 through 2018, and information on the location of work, the ATUS would appear ideal to analyze trends in telecommuting. However, when analyzing work from home it is necessary to distinguish between telecommuting and unpaid overtime.
While the motivations for performing work at home and the implications for worker welfare may be quite different between telecommuting and unpaid overtime1, the basic ATUS has no means of distinguishing between them.
You can read the full 29-page report here
ABOUT JEFF ALTMAN, THE BIG GAME HUNTER
Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter is a coach who worked as a recruiter for what seems like one hundred years. His work involves career coaching, all as well as executive job search coaching, job coaching, and interview coaching. He is the host of “No BS Job Search Advice Radio,” the #1 podcast in iTunes for job search with more than 2100 episodes, and is a member of The Forbes Coaches Council.
Are you interested in 1:1 coaching, interview coaching, advice about networking more effectively, how to negotiate your offer or leadership coaching? Schedule a free Discovery call.
If you have a quick question for me, you can get it answered with a 3-5 minute video at https://www.wisio.com/TheBigGameHunter. Want to do it live?
JobSearchCoachingHQ.com offers great advice for job hunters—videos, my books and guides to job hunting, podcasts, articles, PLUS a community for you to ask questions of PLUS the ability to ask me questions where I function as your ally with no conflict of interest answering your questions.
Connect with me on LinkedIn. Like me on Facebook.
Join and attend my classes on Skillshare. Become a premium member and get 2 months free.
Watch my videos on YouTube at JobSearchTV.com, the Job SearchTV app for FireTV, Roku or a firestick or BingeNetworks.tv for AppleTV and 90 smart tv platforms.
You can order a copy of “Diagnosing Your Job Search Problems” for Kindle on Amazon and receive free Kindle versions of “No BS Resume Advice” and “Interview
Preparation.” If you are starting your search, order, “Get Ready for the Job Jungle.”
Don’t forget to give the show 5 stars and a good review in iTunes. It helps other people discover the show like you did.
Would you like to talk through a salary negotiation or potential negotiation you’re involved with? Order and schedule time with me.
Do you have questions or would like advice about networking or any aspect of your search. Order and schedule time with me.
Would you like me to critique your resume? Order a critique from me
Jeff’s Kindle book, “You Can Fix Stupid: No BS Hiring Advice,” is available on Amazon.
We grant permission for this post and others to be used on your website as long as a backlink is included and notice is provided that it is provided by Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter as an author or creator.
