Before the pandemic, working from home was unusual, with less than 5% of the American workforce working remotely. Now nearly a third of working hours in the US are spent working from home in the US.
Despite the easing of pandemic-related restrictions across the globe, many employers are choosing not to return to the old “normal” office scenario, opting for hybrid or fully remote options instead.
We’ve collected the latest stats on working from home. Let’s dive right in.
Jump to:
- Key Findings
- How Many Americans Work From Home?
- Which Country Has the Most Remote Workers?
- Remote vs. Onsite vs. Hybrid Work in the US
- Where are Most Remote Workers Based?
- What Industry Has the Most Work From Home Jobs?
- How Many People Could be Working From Home?
- Growth of Remote Job Vacancies
- Why do People Like Working From Home?
Key Findings
- Around 27.7% of paid working days in the US in February 2023 were spent working from home. That’s up from less than 5% pre-pandemic.
- In early 2023, around 11% of Americans reported working from home only.
- Less than 4-in-10 (35.2%) of remote-capable American employees worked only at employers or client’s sites in early 2023.
- 12.54% of new online job postings in the US advertised remote work opportunities as of January 2023.
How Many People Work From Home?
In February 2023, 27.7% of paid working days were spent working from home among US residents (aged 20 to 64 who earned $10K or more in the prior year). That’s down from the all-time high work-from-home share of 61.5% in May 2020[1].
17.9% of the American employed population worked primarily from home in 2021[2].
Pre-COVID ACS data shows that only 4.7% of US residents aged 20-64 with an annual income of $10K or more worked primarily from home in 2019 (4.2% in 2018)[2].
How many Americans work from home (2011- 2023)
Which Country Has the Most Remote Workers?
According to the Global Survey of Working Arrangements, workers in Singapore and Canada reported the highest number of paid working days worked from home each week, 2.40 and 2.18 days, respectively[7].
G-SWA findings suggest working from home was least common in Russia, Serbia, Egypt, and Korea (with less than one day worked from home in each country).
Paid Working from Home Days Per Week by Country
Remote vs. Onsite vs. Hybrid Work in the US
According to the February 2023 Survey of Working Arrangements And Attitudes, 11.0% of full-time American employees were fully remote, and 28.2% were in a hybrid work arrangement combining work at an employer or client site and home[1].
The same survey found that 18.1% of remote-capable full-time employees in the US worked from home in February 2023, and 46.6% combined onsite days with WFH[1].
Research by Gallup (with survey data up to Q2 2022) suggests that 29% of remote-capable employees opt for exclusively remote work arrangements, with another 49% choosing a hybrid option (with at least 10% of work done remotely)[3].
Where are Most Remote Workers Based?
Based on SWAA findings, working from home is more prevalent in major American cities (with 32.4% of full paid days worked from home in the top 10 largest cities in the country) compared to smaller cities or other less populated locations (outside of the top 50 cities) at 29.4% and 25.0% share, respectively[1].
What City Has the Most People Working From Home?
When ranked by individual city (among 9 select large cities in the US), Los Angeles led February 2023 rankings with a work-from-home share of 35.6%, followed by Miami (35.0%) and San Francisco Bay Area (34.4%)[1].
Work From Home by City in the US
(Among 9 Select Large Cities in the US)
What Industry Has the Most Work From Home Jobs?
Based on the SWAA survey data from September 2022 to February 2023, remote work is most common among employees in the information and finance/insurance sectors, with averages of 2.28 WFH days and 2.14 WFH days per week, respectively.
Working from home is less common among workers in retail trade (0.68 WFH days per week), transportation and warehousing (0.68 WFH days), and hospitality & food services (0.62 WFH days)[4].
Work From Home Figures by Business Sector
How Many People Could be Working From Home?
According to the Gallup survey, 56% of full-time job holders in the US claim that their job can be done working remotely from home[3].
Based on McKinsey American Survey Spring 2022 findings, there was a similar share of remote-capable employees in the US: 58% of employees (92 million people as of April 2022) reported the option to work remotely (at least in partial capacity)[5].
McKinsey survey data suggests that 35% of job holders (55 million people) were offered remote work on a full-time basis, while 23% of American employees (36 million people) were offered remote work for at least part of the time[5].
Growth of Remote Job Vacancies
According to WFH Map data analysis of online job vacancies, 12.54% of US job vacancies posted online explicitly offered hybrid or exclusively remote work as of January 2023[9].
The share of job vacancies in the US saying that the job allows hybrid or fully remote work has substantially increased from 3.53% in pre-pandemic January 2020 to an all-time recorded high of 13.01% in November 2022 to date.
Share of New US Job Vacancies Advertising Remote Work
Why do People Like Working From Home?
According to SWAA data, American employees cited savings on gas and lunch (53.4% of respondents mentioning this benefit among the top ones), no commute (49.2% of respondents), and flexible work schedule (42.9% of respondents) as some of the top benefits of working from home[6].
