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.
Go deeper: An unsettling future for millions of American jobs