Roughly a Third of U.S. Jobs Could be Done Remote, Study Suggests

There always is a difference between what is possible and what happens. The same might be said of work-from-home potential, conducted by professors  Jonathan Dingel and Brent Neiman of the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. 

The study suggest 34 percent of U.S. jobs can plausibly be performed at home. Assuming all occupations involve the same hours of work, these jobs account for 44 percent of all wages. The converse is that 66 percent of jobs cannot plausibly be shifted to “at home” mode. 

As you might guess, some jobs and some areas are more amenable to remote work. The top five U.S. metro areas feature many jobs in government or technology that could be done from home. On the other hand, some areas involve manufacturing, agriculture, raw materials extraction of other major industries that are not amenable to remote work. 

source: Dingel and Neiman

“More than 40 percent of jobs in San Francisco, San Jose, and Washington, DC could be performed at home, whereas this is the case for fewer than 30 percent of jobs in Fort Myers, Grand Rapids, or Las Vegas,” they say. 

Professional, scientific and technical services, management jobs, education, finance, insurance and information jobs are easiest to shift to remote work. Transportation, warehouse operations, construction, retail, agriculture, food services and lodging are among the hardest to shift to remote work. 

source: Dingel and Neiman

The issue is how comfortable more employers will be with remote work. Employees overwhelmingly want the option to work at least some of the time from home. But some employees might not enjoy the experience and might worry about the “out of sight, out of mind” risk.

Many employers also worry about the impact on productivity, in some cases. 

source: Buffer

Mutual trust is at the heart of successful remote work initiatives in the digital workplace, Gartner emphasizes.

Application leaders must trust that their employees will act responsibly when working remotely. As a practical matter, some workers thrive working remotely, while others will feel isolated. Some workers manage their time more successfully than others. 

Also, “employees must trust that their employer will act in their best interest and enable them to be successful,” Gartner notes. 

The bottom line is that even when it is possible for many more people to work remotely, especially on a full-time basis, actual deployments will lag potential.