Proportion of US workers working on site drops from 84% to 74% in first year of pandemic
Workers in computer science, real estate, finance and insurance experienced the biggest bumps in working from home during the early years of the pandemic, while things barely moved for workers in occupations like warehousemen, truck drivers and order pickers, according to the US Census Bureau figures released Tuesday .
The share of on-site workers in computing and math jobs increased from 60% in 2019 to 30% in 2021, and it went from 67% to 43% for workers in insurance, finance and real estate jobs, according to figures from the Income Survey and Participation in Programs (SIPP).
On the other hand, it went from 97% to 96% for workers in so-called “material-moving occupations,” such as laborers, truck drivers, and machine operators.
Looking at all U.S. jobs, the share of workers working on-site dropped from 84% to 74%, the survey said.
Meanwhile, the share of workers in hybrid jobs, i.e. those who spend some days on site and other days at home, has risen from 4% in 2020 to 6% in 2021. Of those workers, the most common days to work from home were according to the poll on Monday and Friday.
The SIPP program performs interviews with 14,000 to 52,000 households over several years.
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