The number of people working remotely tripled during COVID
The number of people primarily working from home tripled between 2019 and 2021, per survey results released Thursday by the U.S. Census Bureau.
Why it matters: The new figures provide a fresh look into how the pandemic upended how Americans work, play and live.
By the numbers: 17.9% of people primarily worked from home in 2021, compared with 5.7% in 2019, per the survey results.
- Nearly half, 48.3%, of workers in Washington, D.C., worked from home in 2021, the highest percentage of remote workers in the country, per the Census Bureau.
- The states with the highest percentage of residents working from home were Washington, Maryland and Colorado, all around 24%.
- The average commuting time by private vehicle in 2021 was on average two minutes shorter than in 2019, per the data.
Between the lines: The Census Bureau said last year that it would not use its 1-year estimates from 2020 "because of the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on data collection."
- The newly released survey results provide one of the most reliable indications yet of the pandemic's impact on Americans' work-from-home habits.
What they're saying: "Work and commuting are central to American life, so the widespread adoption of working from home is a defining feature of the COVID-19 pandemic," Michael Burrows, a statistician in the Census Bureau’s Journey-to-Work and Migration Statistics Branch, said in a statement.
- "With the number of people who primarily work from home tripling over just a two-year period, the pandemic has very strongly impacted the commuting landscape in the United States."
Go deeper... Remote work may not be working any more
Editor's note: This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.