Working Paper

Measuring Trends in Work From Home: Evidence from Six U.S. Datasets

Abstract: This paper documents the prevalence of work from home (WFH) in six U.S. data sets. These surveys measure WFH using different questions, reference periods, samples, and survey collection methods. Once we construct samples and WFH measures that are comparable across surveys, all surveys broadly agree about the trajectory of aggregate WFH since the Covid-19 outbreak. The surveys agree that pre-pandemic differences in WFH rates by sex, education, and state of residence expanded following the Covid-19 outbreak. The surveys also show similar post-pandemic trends in WFH by firm size and industry. Finally, we highlight that an important source of quantitative differences in WFH across surveys is WFH by self-employed workers; by contrast, surveys closely agree on rates of WFH among employees.

Keywords: work from home; remote work; telecommuting; commuting; data set comparisons;

JEL Classification: I18; J21; J22; J24; L23;

https://doi.org/10.20955/wp.2024.023

Bibliographic Information

Provider: Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis

Part of Series: Working Papers

Publication Date: 2024-09-11

Number: 2024-023