What professions are going remote the fastest?

Jessica Stillman — Mon, 04 Jun 2012 12:12:18 +0000

Who exactly works remotely these days? For years some jobs have been associated with dialing in from a distance. Writers, sales reps and childcare workers have been working from home since long before the tech advances that made the practice an option for many more professions. Do these stalwarts of remote working still make up the lion’s share of telecommuters?

The Conference Board recently crunched numbers from the U.S. Census to find out, producing a report entitled “The Incredible Disappearing Office: Making Telework Work.” The analysis reveals that while traditional teleworking professions still have the highest rates of remote working – 9.3 percent of writers worked remotely in 2010 and 10.8 percent of sales representatives did – these weren’t the professions where telecommuting was making the fastest gains. What job categories were the fastest growers?

Records clerks: 5.5 percent work remotely in 2008-2010, up 516 percent from 2011-2003
Insurance underwriters: 4.5 percent work remotely, up 275 percent
Lawyers: 2 percent telecommute, up 166 percent
Software developers: 6.1 percent telework, up 127 percent

In 2000, employees of non-profits were most likely to telecommute, the report also notes. Ten years later employees of for-profit businesses were now more likely to be working remotely. This shift in the telework landscape reflects the fact that “steady technical refinement…has made teleworking an increasingly attractive business proposition,” according to the release accompanying the report.

The report also agrees with the conventional wisdom that savvy management and thoughtful use of tech underpin telecommuting success. “Research concurs that the dual lynchpins of effective teleworking are strong management and robust IT,” said co-author Gad Levanon, director of macroeconomic research at The Conference Board.

Are there any specific professions you are surprised don’t telecommute more (or less)?

Image courtesy of Flickr user Plutor.

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U.S. Census Data Shows What We Know: Internet Growth

Om Malik — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 15:09:34 +0000

[qi:046] We don’t quite need the U.S. Census to tell us that most (but not all) people love the Internet. Breakneck growth in the number of broadband connections, growing sales of cheap computers, and our growing reliance on modern communication tools, such as email, instant messages and Facebook, have become so pervasive that even the homeless need to be connected. That reliance has increased over the past 12 years, as shown by 2007 U.S. Census data. Here are some of the highlights from that data (which is now about 2 years old).

64 percent of people over 18 used the Internet in 2007 vs. 22 percent in 1997.
62 percent of households used the Internet at home in 2007 vs. 18 percent in 1997.
50.8 percent of households accessed the Internet at home over a broadband connection. Dial-up access had 10.7 percent of households.
Alaska and New Hampshire residents had among the highest rates of Internet use from any location (home, work or public access).
There were 38.3 percent households with no Internet use at home.

These stats, while 2 years old, are a good mile-marker that explains why we are still continuing to see growth in services such as Skype, Facebook, Twitter and Google. I wonder what the next census will look like? With 4G wireless broadband around the corner, will we even bother to ask the question: Internet access from home? More importantly, will there be anyone still dialing up for Internet access? :-)

Year	Households	Household with computer at home	Household with Internet use at home
2007	117,840	(x)¹	61.7
2003	113,126	61.8	54.7
2001	109,106	56.3	50.4
2000	105,247	51.0	41.5
1997	102,158	36.6	18.0
1993	98,736	22.9	(x)²
1989	94,061	15.0	(x)
1984	87,073	8.2	(x)

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Current Population Survey, November 1984, 1989, 1993, 1997, 2000, 2001, 2003. Internet Release date: June 2009.

^1. In 2007 respondents were not asked any questions about computer access or ownership. Additonally, question wording regarding both computer use and Internet access have differered from year to year.

^2. In 1984, 1989, and 1993, respondents were not asked any questions about the Internet.

^3. The householder refers to the person (or one of the persons) in whose name the housing unit is owned or rented (maintained) or, if there is no such person, any adult member, excluding roomers, boarders, or paid employees. If the house is owned or rented jointly by a married couple, the householder may be either the husband or the wife. The person designated as the householder is the “reference person” to whom the relationship of all other household members, if any, is recorded.

Hat Tip, Gary Price.

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What professions are going remote the fastest?

U.S. Census Data Shows What We Know: Internet Growth