How many people are working from home?
While it is not a new phenomenon in the work. The idea of working from home has always been a running trend with people of all ages. While some might be under the impression that all of this happened a few years ago, but they can’t be further from the truth, as the idea of working from home dates back to thousands of years. There are plenty of definitions about the home office floating on the internet. A lot of them have different meanings attached to them.aso people will find a much easier way to take on the subject.
But how many people are working from home?
52% of all employees worldwide are working from home, and 68% work remotely at least once a month.
42% of the Labor force in the US is working from home full-time. It is estimated that 26.7% will continue to do so in 2021,
By 2025 about 36.2 million (22% of the workforce) will work from home in the US.
(source: upwork and stanford.)
If you are looking for information about the home office, with data & figures, then you are in the right place.
Here in this article, you are going to find all the crucial information that you will need to know about the Home office. On how much impact they had on our society in the past, and how it is functioning now in the present? As these are some of the questions that get floated around the main topic. This topic requires an answer in detail to solve the problem.
See also: WHAT ARE THE DISADVANTAGES OF WORKING FROM HOME?
A Short History Of Working From Home
Hunter-gatherers were one to bring fruits of their labor back to the heath. In there, the food that was bought in and then it had to go through multiple processes for the proper consumption of the food. Then In medieval times, we saw a much more coordinated effort towards the home office.
In fact, you will see the example of medieval work homes in many parts of the world today. People find this approach to work from home much more convenient over the more traditional ways. In medieval times, people used to set up camps for trading, but all of them will be from their homes.
Then comes the renaissance era, where the world saw many merchants and traders from all walks of life created a home office to run their business. They would set up a shop on the street, then the private areas would be out behind the shop. Then the world saw massive changes when it entered the industrial phase. As the big industries took over the world, so did the demand for jobs.
All the jobs used to take place in a factory. Both men and women had to work in the factory, which was a different scenario than the home office from the previous times. The man and woman at this time, found themselves to adapt to the changes instead of giving up.
The 20th century was a real revolution of phase for a lot of people. What made the 20th century more acceptable for everyone to take a chance at the job industry, is the invention of new technology. These inventions might not hold any value to the world that we live in now, but back then they were revolutionary. Communication tools such as the telegraph, the telephone, and the typewriter were some of the inventions that helped the workers to push forward.
These are some of the elements of our history that made the concept of home office possible in this day and age.
Modern Day Work From Home Concepts
Modern-day has given the employers a lot of advantages that the older generation didn’t get a chance to use. That is why if you compare the number of employment opportunities to the older generation, you will see a huge rise. There will be a lot of factors that helped the number to rise up to ascertain level.
But one of the biggest factors that played a big role in the advancement of working from home jobs is technology. The field of communication has been seeing a quiet rise over the years, as the different approach to communication has made the employers possible to contact every team member in the group and the company at any time they want. There is no restriction into the communication barrier, that is why so many companies are now opening their doors to working from home jobs.
While it is true, the numbers of working from home may not be as overwhelming as many people think they are, but if you compare the statistics of the employment through working from home jobs to stats from the ‘80s or ‘70, you will see a massive improvement on the percentage of people that are now fully involved in the idea of working from home.
Just to give you an example, in the 1980s, only 0.7% of the people were affiliated with the working from a home model of work, but if you look at the number in the year 2017, we saw a 0.7% number jumped up to 3%. The study was conducted by the St.Louis Fed; they saw the primary source of income of 3% of people coming out of working from home jobs.
The study explained around 500,000 employees in America held a remote job in the year 1080. This accounted for 0.7%, but if you compare that number to the year 2017, the number is astonishing. In 2017, the working from home department saw over 3 million people working primarily from a remote location.
All thanks to the rise of technology, which made everything possible in a matter of seconds. As people communicated themselves better than any of the previous era. Having better tools at disposal has made people work efficiently without sacrificing the time and productivity that every company desires out of their employers.
The major tools that played a vital role in the rising of the working from home jobs, is communication. Telecommunication enabled people to work from a distant location, that could be from another area to another country.
As long as the employers have all the communication tools, the company can freely let the employees know about the next step on the line. It’s all about being informed all the time. That is why the rise of telecommunication has become a wheel that drives the working from home jobs for a lot of people in the world.
Working in home office over the last 10 years
Here is a deep look at what are the changes that happened to the home office over the years. We will start in the year 2010 to – present day.
So you will get the whole picture of remote jobs, and what made the job so popular amongst various candidates who just entered the job market. And the highlight of each year.
Source: US Census 2017
If you look at the chart above, you can see why we are seeing a spike in the work from home jobs in the United States. The appealing factors of these jobs have been increasing with time. If you take a large proportion of Americans into consideration, when it comes to working from home, the number is not that big.
If you take a look at the last 10 years, there are a lot of things that happened. All of these things made more people adopt significant changes in their life. The numbers on the board support this claim.
The rise of remote job holders has increased from 3% to 5%. That is the basic fact of the remote job market. But that can’t be the only thing that has seen rapid changes. All the aspects related to the remote job industry and the companies that offer these jobs have been going through massive changes. These changes make the employees of their organization closer to the future way of living.
What has changed over the last 10 years?
Working from the home industry is now getting more popular than it has ever been. More and more people are looking forward to holding a remote job to start their career. 2020 gave so many people the thought of working outside of the office. That is why you are seeing such an interest in the remote jobs in the market, especially now. But the question in hand here, is what has changed over the 10 years?
Since the subject is working from home, below you are going to find all the information about the changes in the remote job industry that happened in the last 10 years.
Employee Schedule
One of the benefits employees are now getting with remote jobs than doing the job in the traditional way, is the flexibility of the job schedule. Before the revolution that we saw in the job industry, not many people paid attention to working from home jobs.
But now if you look at the states, the number will leave you astonishing. A whopping 40% of the people think the employee schedule is the greatest benefit they receive from holding remote work.
Hiring
Remote jobs or work from homework are not at a low scale as they used. The changes in the communication industry have made the companies adapt to the newer world. The hiring process of any company is now seeing these changes.
Compared to the world 10 years ago, now 16% of the companies have jobs for remote workers. Because communication between different group p members can happen now without losing the connection or facing any restriction. Companies now allow remote workers to have a 25% lower employee turnover.
When it comes to retaining the employee to the organization. Companies are now providing more benefits to employers. The statistics show 76% of the workers are demanding flexible work hours if they want to stick to the companies for a longer period of time.
That is why 69% of the millennials rather sacrifice work benefits for a remote job position. As the benefits people get outweigh the pressure of the work. As people are free to work anywhere in the world, they will only need a proper internet connection and a laptop to recreate the same work environment almost anywhere in the world. Many people see this as a perfect way to start working, then follow the old traditional method.
Productivity
No companies in the world would ever think about giving out a remote job position if it declined the productivity of the company. According to SmallBizGenius, 24% of people who are part of the remote job industry, are more happy and productive. If you check out the number year-wise, then the number of people who hold a remote job has increased by 140% since 2005.
77% of people have said that working remotely had a positive impact on their health. Some of the major things that happen are the reduction of stress and adapting to a better diet. These two have been a great help on the employer’s overall health.
Growth
Telecommuting has grown a massive 115% in the past decade. It has been seeing no sign of stoppage. That is why the remote job is not part of a dying breed, as research predicts nearly 73% of all departments will have remote workers by the year 2028. Now the Gen Z and millennials are making up 38% of the workforce.
But the report shows the number will be at 58% by the year 2028. All of that only in the United States. If you go beyond the United States, then the number changes drastically, nearly 52% of the workers have taken the remote job approach. The statistics were taken in the year 2018, it shows more than half of the people in this world have been enjoying the benefits of remote jobs.
Catching Trend
In the US, holding a remote job is now sitting at an all-time high. More people are finding the benefits of remote jobs more appealing than the traditional route of dealing with jobs. The statistics clearly paints a better picture of the remote job and the remote jobholders.
Source: Flexjobs
If you compare the states from 2016 to 2017, the growth in the remote job industry was 7.9%. When you put years into the table, the numbers have been increasing. As more people are interested in a remote job, the companies are still finding their way to provide jobs to the candidates.
If you look at the numbers, nearly 44% of the companies still haven’t adopted the working from home approach to their employment system.
Of course, we have to take this number with a grain of salt, just because a company says that they allow remote work for their employees, that doesn’t necessarily mean they imply it in their organization. The number could be higher, but the recent events have made the companies act in a different way than they used to.
Major remote job holder companies are always small scale organizations. As they would have many slots for full-time remote worker positions. In fact, many people are currently working for small companies.
There is a reason why so many small companies opt out to offering remote jobs for their employees over large scale organizations. The best reason is money. A small scale company doesn’t have enough funding to support everything that is required for one employee, let alone providing the same stuff to all the employees working from the company. That is why they choose to take a remote job. That will cut electricity bills, office space pay, types of equipment, and additional costs for the company.
Source: Polycom
It is very common for young employees to hold a remote position in the company. But the older people are now moving towards remote job positions. It is speculated that in the future we will have an evenly distributed when it comes to young and old in the remote job sector.
Global Scale
When you look at the remote jobs from a global perspective, the number has also been rising. In a study conducted by The IWG Global Workspace Survey, where more than 15,000 businesses from 80 nations gave the numbers to flexible working on a global scale. Here we found that over 85% of the company said that they saw an increased productivity for their business. This happened due to adapting to a flexible workspace.
Flexible working has become the primary choice for so many employees. The study also showed that 4 out of 5 employees would turn down any offer that doesn’t include flexible working.
Over half of the employees globally are working outside of their office, rather than staying inside of it. And they spend half of the week working for the company. As they do it from a different location, one that is far away from the main office location.
Of course, the stats don’t apply to all the countries globally. In some countries, such as Japan, where you will see fewer companies have adopted flexible work. Then you see Germany, where 80% of the employees hold a remote job position.
Source: IWG
As the employees see the remote jobs as a clear win for their life. Many companies are still taking time to fix some issues to tackle it the right way. There are various terms that are attached to “Flexible working”.
Many employees think of flexible work to run their own schedule to work, or having the ability to choose the working hours. And there are some who think they will have the ability to manage the workload. But more people are associated with the location aspect of flexible working than anything else.
We didn’t see many companies adapting to this method, but the constant pushing of flexibility in the workspace by many employees by different organizations has moved the companies to follow the procedure. As the demand for the flexible workplace has been on the rise. And many businesses are making huge profits by hiring talent.
Because the notion of working from a remote location attracts a lot of young workers. Nearly 75% of the young workers are open to working from home or any location other than being in the office. Countries like the UK, the USA, and India are using flexible workspaces to attract top skilled workers. In Poland over 92% of workers are using this strategy for their employment.
The reason for so many companies switching to a flexible workspace than the tradition-based is a lot. Here you have to look at the small things that may appear as a tiny part of life, but if you count it by the number and then by the year you will see why so many companies are taking the remote job approach.
Take something mundane as a commute to work, which doesn’t sound like much, but if you take the hours the employees spend on getting to the main office, then going back to their own home. In some areas that number would be a lot., if you add the year into the number, that is a significant chunk of their life employees spend outdoors doing nothing, just going to work and taking the same amount of time to go home.
Final Thought
If you take the data from medieval times to the world that we live in today. You can see a massive amount of changes happen throughout the years. But only recently we saw a huge spike in the technology, as more stuff is now being created to make the technology much more proficient and effective in the workplace.
So many companies can adapt to the changes in the world without worrying about their productivity and margin for profit. At the same time technologies have allowed the employees to have freedom at work, which was impossible, but now it’s been seeing good numbers.
Companies are finding a way to sue them, and the employees are taking huge benefits from these changes, as they can now work from a remote location without ever stepping a foot into the office.
This might seem a little unorthodox to some people, but a lot of younger people are now taking this approach to start their career rather than sticking to the old methods. There are a lot more benefits to having the worker’s device to go for remote job offerings than the old school style.
See also: WHAT WORKING FROM HOME HAS TAUGHT ME
