Share of U.S. employees working on-site drops in pandemic’s first year

Workers in the fields of computer science, real estate, finance and insurance experienced the greatest bumps in working from home during the first years of the pandemic, while it barely budged for labourers in occupations like stockers, truck operators and order fillers, according to U.S. Census Bureau figures released Tuesday.

The share of employees working on-site in computer and mathematical jobs went from 60% in 2019 to 30% in 2021, and it went from 67% to 43% for workers in insurance, finance and real estate jobs, according to figures from the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP).

On the flip side, it went from 97% to 96% for workers in what are called “material moving occupations,” such as labourers, truck drivers and machine operators.

Looking at all U.S. jobs, the share of employees working on-site dropped from 84% to 74%, the survey said.

Meanwhile, the share of workers in hybrid jobs, that is those spending some days on-site and other days at home, increased from 4% in 2020 to 6% in 2021. Of those employees, the most common days to work from home were Mondays and Fridays, according to the survey.

The SIPP program conducts interviews with anywhere from 14,000 to 52,000 households over several years.