Telecommuting: 10% of US Employees are Home Based

I wrote here and here denoting of how the forces of decentralization, which has been underpinned by the deepening of technology innovation trends, will likely upset on mainstream’s mantra of urbanization. 

Work will increasingly become mobile and move away from fixed time and or location as globalization spreads.  And such dynamic will reconfigure people’s lifestyles.

We are seeing more signs of such dynamic in play through increases in home based employment which now accounts for 10% of US employment.

From the Wall Street Journal Blog, (bold mine)

About one in 10 workers toils at least partly from home now, an emerging trend that could boost the productivity of the entire economy.

The U.S. Census Bureau said in a report Tuesday that some 13 million people, or 9.4% of the working population in 2010, worked at least one day at home per week, compared with just 9.2 million people in 1997, when 7% worked at least partly from home. People working either entirely or partly from home were more likely to be in management and business. Those in computer, engineering and science jobs saw among the biggest shifts home-ward: “Home-based” work in these fields jumped around 70% from 252,000 workers in 2000 to 432,000 workers in 2010. (Home-based workers work exclusively or part of the time from home.) According to Census figures, 5.8 million people or 4.3% of the U.S. workforce worked from home most of the week in 2010 — an increase of about 1.6 million since 2000.

Around the world, advances in technology are making it easier for millions to work from home. But there is much debate over the benefits of telecommuting Yahoo  Chief Executive Marissa Mayer set off a recent round of debate when she ended the company’s work-from-home arrangements.

Public or private projects based on the concept of centralization, such as urbanization, will be faced with greater risks.