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Remote Work Statistics since COVID

Posted on: September 16, 2020

Uncertainty amid a global pandemic has businesses rattled. As founders brace themselves to prepare for the second wave of remote work, what can we make of everything that has happened so far?

Here, you’ll find statistics from the Federal Reserve Bank, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and Research Gate that showcase a timeline of the first wave of remote work in numbers.

Remote Working Statistics

February 2020

75.4% of US workers reported commuting to work every day and 16.4% commuted some days in February 2020 (Federal Reserve Bank).
In February 2020, just 8.2% of employed persons in the US worked remotely full-time (Federal Reserve Bank).

March 2020

To test their plans for office closures, JP Morgan Chase and Amazon asked 10% of their employees to work from home in March 2020 (Research Gate).

April 2020

By the first week of April 2020, 31% of US workers who were employed in March had moved to remote work (Bureau of Labor Statistics 2).
In the US, unemployment increased by 11% from February to April 2020 (Bureau of Labor Statistics 2)
The US unemployment rate for people who could not telework increased by 14% and those who could by 6% from February to April 2020 (Bureau of Labor Statistics 2).
By April 2020, areas in the US that were hit hard by COVID-19 experienced unemployment rates as high as 32% (Bureau of Labor Statistics 2)

May 2020

By May 2020, 32.5% of the US workforce performed duties entirely from home (Federal Reserve Bank).
It’s estimated that 71.7% of US workers who could effectively work from home did so in May 2020 (Federal Reserve Bank).
Only 43.7% of US workers who commuted for work in February 2020 did so in May 2020 (Federal Reserve Bank).
In May 2020, 28.6% of US workers began to work from home part-time at least one day per week (Federal Reserve Bank).
27.7% of US workers became unemployed in May 2020 (Federal Reserve Bank).
The US unemployment rate increased by 9.7% from the prior year in May 2020 (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
70% of workers in the US who switched from daily commutes in February to remote work in May 2020 stopped going into the office at all (Federal Reserve Bank).
An increase of telecommuting in May 2020 accounts for 52.7% of the overall decrease in commuting to work in the US (Federal Reserve Bank).
28.3% of US workers who had the option to work from home opted-out and continued to work at their respective establishments (Federal Reserve Bank).