The Blubber

The share of Americans working remotely has fallen to the lowest level since the end of the pandemic, per the Household Pulse Survey.

Recent data from the two most recent Census Bureau Household Pulse Surveys indicates that less than 26% of US households now have someone working remotely at least one day a week. This marks a significant decline from the peak in early 2021 when the figure was 37%. The data further reveals that only seven states, along with Washington, DC, have a remote-work rate exceeding 33%, down from 31 states and DC during the mid-pandemic period.

The decline in remote work reflects the ongoing efforts of many employers to encourage staff to return to office spaces. Remote employees have faced criticism for impacting profits and incurring significant costs for cities. Concerns about a potential recession have also weakened their ability to negotiate for telework privileges, which were more accessible early in the pandemic when the labor market favored employees. Some companies, including Goldman Sachs Group Inc., are now advocating for a return to a five-day office workweek, although there is considerable disagreement on this topic.

At the state level, the data shows that all 50 states have experienced a reduction in work-from-home rates from their pandemic highs. However, the variation in the rates of decline suggests that the trend is not uniform and is influenced by a combination of factors such as migration patterns, socio-economic conditions, gender and race considerations, and potentially even political factors—Democratic states tend to have higher remote-work rates than Republican ones.

Illustrating this complexity, states like Mississippi and Louisiana, which heavily rely on in-person industries like manufacturing and oil and gas, have seen remote-work rates decline significantly. Similarly, states like California and Connecticut, which embraced remote work, have also experienced a decrease in their remote-work rates.

New York City workers who left during the pandemic for towns like Greenwich, Connecticut, may not be returning, but are commuting to the city. While Connecticut's work-from-home rate has fallen, ridership along the Metro-North train lines linking the state to New York City has increased, indicating a shift in commuting patterns.

The latest Census data also highlights that the demand for remote jobs among employees exceeds the number of companies offering such roles. In 157 of the largest metro areas in the US, over half of job applications in August were for fully remote or hybrid roles, according to LinkedIn data. However, postings for these jobs have been declining since early 2022, based on data from Indeed Inc. In Colorado, where remote work has been popular, 76% of job applications in Colorado Springs were for fully remote or hybrid roles in August.

Some areas are capitalizing on the scarcity of remote work opportunities. Alabama, with a work-from-home rate of just 15%, offers $10,000 to remote workers who relocate to the state's northwest Shoals area. The program has attracted approximately the same number of applications so far in 2023 as in the entire years of 2021 and 2022 combined—around 3,400 applications.