Fact of the Week: Professionals Averaged 5.4 Hours Per Week Working at Home From 2013 to 2017, a 38 Percent Increase From 2003 to 2007

Source: Rachel Krantz-Kent, “Where did workers perform their jobs in the early 21st century?” Monthly Labor Review, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, July 2019.

Commentary: The adoption of technologies like smart phones and cloud computing has made it less important for people many occupations to do their work onsite where their companies are located. Data from the American Time Use Survey reflects this trend and suggests that working remotely has not increased the total hours spent working, on average. The survey finds that workers in management, professional, and related occupations worked for an average of 29.6 hours per week in their workplace, 5.4 hours at home, and 1.6 hours elsewhere in the period from 2013 to2017, which was 2.2 hours less than they spent in the workplace from 2003 to 2007, but 1.5 hours more than they spent at home in the earlier period, and 0.4 hours more than they spent elsewhere. In total, professionals worked an average of 0.4 hours less each week in the recent period, and the share of working hours they spent in the workplace dropped from 85.8 percent to 80.9 percent.