(Image Source: Bibhash Banerjee / Unsplash)
May 2023
Is teleworking from home a pandemic-related fad, or a trend that is that is here to stay? Recent reports from the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) and the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) provide some interesting insights.
According to an NBER working paper vividly titled “Work from Home and the Office Real Estate Apocalypse,” office occupancy in major U.S. markets fell from 95% to 10% between the last week of February 2020 and first week of March 2020. By September 2022 physical occupancy had bounced back only weakly, to 47%.
A report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics appears to corroborate those findings. According to “Telework, Hiring, and Vacancies,” in August-September 2022 industries such as information (67.4%), professional and business services (49.0%), educational services (46.0%), and wholesale trade (39.0%) reported relatively high proportions of their employees were working from home some of the time or all of the time.
Not all jobs can be performed remotely. In comparison to the industries cited above, accommodation and food service (0.3%), natural resources (8.0%), construction (10.5%), and retail (11.0%) reported relatively low proportions of employees working from home some of the time or all of the time.
That brings us to today’s question. Looking at the employment landscape as a whole, what proportion of all U.S. employers in the private sector reported that their employees were teleworking either some of the time or all of the time in August and September 2022?
A. 8.2%
B. 27.5%
C. 47.0%
D. 11.1%
E. 15 %
ANSWERS
Answer B. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 27.5% of U.S. employers surveyed reported that their employees worked from home some of the time or all of the time. In total, 11.1% reported that their employees worked from home all of the time, and 16.4% reported that their employees worked from home at least some of the time.
