In 2014, on days they worked, 23 percent of employed persons did some or all of their work at home, and 85 percent did some or all of their work at their workplace, ... In 2003, the first year for which comparable data are available, 19 percent of employed persons did some or all of their work at home, and 87 percent did some or all their work at their workplace on days worked.Is this a lot or a little? Is the glass half-full? Half-empty? By themselves, these data say nothing about how many cars were taken of the roads. Quite a few home-workers also spent some time at the office. In a recent post, I did cite some evidence on how many (how few) just worked at home.
But this is where standard concepts of productivity fail us. We are unable to measure the comparative "well-offness" of those who spend more time at home. They are (no pun) voting with their feet and telling us something about how they choose to use modern communications (and work) options. "Death of distance" never came; cities and agglomerations keep growing -- mostly at the edges. People seemingly do more work-spreading (some at home, some at the office). As with social networking, they can strengthen weak ties from a distance. That's a good thing.
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