15% of the U.S. worked from home last year, according to new Census figures — but the numbers are much higher on both the East and West coasts, and in other big metro areas,

• Why it matters: Every state has more remote workers now than it did in 2019, before COVID, Axios' Sam Baker and Simran Parwani report.

High end: Boulder, Colo., had the highest share of remote workers of any metro area last year, at 32%. Denver wasn't far behind.

• San Francisco and San Jose were both in the top 10. Their main rival for tech jobs, Austin, was even higher.
• Just over 25% of the workforce in D.C. is remote — the 6th highest rate of any city, and higher than any state.

Low end: Mississippi has the lowest share of remote workers in the U.S., at just 5.5%.

• The Southeast generally is well below the national average.

🖼️ The big picture: Even after two years, the trend line is barely moving. Nationwide, the share of people working from home declined by less than 3 percentage points between 2021 and 2022, according to the Census figures.

🧠 What's happening: The work-from-home revolution is most entrenched in big cities with large concentrations of office buildings, and downtown economies that survived because those office buildings are full.

• Any number of large employers, from big banks in New York up to the federal government, have tried to get employees back to the office.

💡 The solution in these cities is more likely to come from ambitious redevelopment projects — converting office towers into residential buildings, and central business districts into mixed-use neighborhoods.

• That's complicated and extremely expensive. But it's already underway in several cities.

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Former President Trump, 77 — in an interview for Kristen Welker's debut tomorrow as moderator of NBC's "Meet the Press" — said he isn't concerned that he'd be in his 80s if re-elected.

• "Well, I will be toward the end," Trump said in an interview taped Thursday in Bedminster, N.J. — his first broadcast-network interview since leaving office.
• "No, because my father lived much longer than that [age 93]. My mother lived much longer than that [age 88]. So genetically, that's a good thing."

Asked if he's leaning toward a woman for V.P., Trump said: "I like the concept, but we're going to pick the best person. But I do like the concept, yes."

• On whether he has his eye on South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem (R), who endorsed Trump for '24 last week, he said: "I do. I think she's fantastic. ... But we ... have a lot of great people in the Republican Party."

30-second clip.

The UAW's novel targeted strike strategy against U.S. automakers is already starting to have ripple effects on other factories, Axios' Joann Muller reports from Detroit.

• Why it matters: Auto inventories are tight. Should the strike escalate, prices of new and used automobiles could rise within two months, according to RSM U.S. chief economist Joe Brusuelas.

Context: Until yesterday, the UAW had never gone on strike simultaneously against GM, Ford and Stellantis (Chrysler's parent).

What's happening: UAW President Shawn Fain devised a unique plan aimed at ratcheting up the pain at the Big 3 without wrecking the economy.

• The plan was to target a trio of strategic factories — in Michigan, Ohio and Missouri — while keeping 90% of members working under expired contracts.

🥊 Reality check: GM and Ford have already said they will have to shutter other factories impacted by the work stoppage at the targeted plants.

• GM said it will have to idle a Kansas assembly plant next week.
• Ford said the work stoppage in the assembly and paint departments at a Michigan factory means 600 other employees at the plant have been told to stay home.

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This 3-D drone display buzzed above Manhattan and UN headquarters last night to raise awareness about the Amazon rainforest and global climate crisis, ahead of next week's 78th UN General Assembly + an adjacent UN Climate Ambition Summit.

• Biden's UNGA plans.

The gender gap in book publishing has pretty much been closed, Ashley May writes for the weekend edition of Axios Markets.

🧮 By the numbers: Women's share of all books published grew over the past 60 years to roughly 50%, according to data analyzed by Joel Waldfogel, an economist at the University of Minnesota's Carlson School of Management.

• Women are attaining a higher share of bestseller lists, as well as nominations for the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize.
• They now account for 58.1% of sales in the "literature and fiction" category.

Between the lines: Book publishing is far ahead of other fields. Waldfogel points out that in other areas of intellectual property, especially patents, women still lag men.

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Salesforce plans to hire 3,300 people after laying off 10% of its workforce (8,000 employees) at the beginning of the year.

• Why it matters: The cloud-based software company is betting that excitement about AI "will fuel a new cycle of tech investment," Bloomberg reports.

"Our job is to grow the company and to continue to achieve great margins," CEO Marc Benioff told Bloomberg at Dreamforce, the company's massive annual conference in San Francisco, where Salesforce is headquartered. "We know we have to hire thousands of people."

• The new hires will be split among sales, engineering and those working on the company's Data Cloud product, which helps customers organize information from multiple sources.

3-min Dreamforce video.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, when asked yesterday how President Biden plans to convince the American people over the next year that 80 is not too old for someone who's running for re-election:

"Eighty is the new forty.  Didn't you hear?" [Laughter.]

Delta is making big changes to its SkyMiles program that will soon start restricting access to its Sky Club airport lounges, Axios' Kelly Tyko reports.

• Why it matters: Pent-up travel demand has been driving travelers to frequent-flyer programs and rewards credit cards. But airlines are making it harder to cash in on popular perks.

🖼️ The big picture: Airlines, including American and United, have been raising the qualification requirements to earn or maintain their "elite" frequent-flyer tiers to pre-pandemic levels and beyond.

"Beginning Jan. 1," Delta announced, "Delta SkyMiles Platinum and Platinum Business American Express Card Members and those customers traveling in Basic Economy, regardless of card type, will no longer be eligible for Club access."

• "These changes are part of Delta's ongoing efforts to help balance the popularity of the Clubs with the premium experience they provide."

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