The number of people primarily working from home tripled between 2019 and 2021, according to a survey released last week by the U.S. Census Bureau, Axios' Erin Doherty reports.
Why it matters: The shift is a defining feature of the pandemic that has reshaped the commuting landscape in America, according to Michael Burrows, a statistician with the bureau.
- The survey marks the highest number and percentage of home workers since the survey began in 2005.
- Travel-to-work time was the shortest in the last decade.
The big picture: Home was the primary workplace for almost 18% of workers— 27.6 million people —in 2021.
- That's compared to roughly 9 million, or 5.7%, in 2019.
Zoom in: Almost 13.5% of Iowans primarily worked from home in 2021.
- That's 7.6 percentage points higher than in 2019.
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