Source: IPUMS USA, Ruggles, et al. (2019); and St. Louis Fed; Chart: Axios Visuals
The U.S. economy is shifting inexorably away from manufacturing and towards services — and with that shift comes a rise in remote work.
By the numbers: St. Louis Fed researchers found that more than 3% of American employees primarily worked from home in 2017, up from 0.7% in 1980.
That number rises to 4% for workers in sales, and 5% for workers in management, business and finance.
In Boulder, Colorado, 9% of full-time employees work primarily from home.
At Axios, 12% of full-time employees work remotely from home.
What they're saying: "The technological substrate of collaboration has gotten shockingly good over the last decade," wrote Stripe CTO David Singleton in May, announcing that his company's fifth engineering hub would be "Remote."
Some Stripe teams are comprised entirely of remote employees.
The bottom line: America's self-employed have been working from home for decades. Now full-time employees are beginning to discover the attractions of avoiding the dreaded open office.
