The Evolution of Work from Home

Looking back to 1965, full days worked from home were less than half a percent of all paid workdays in the United States. As shown in Figure 1, the work-from-home share rose slowly over the next few decades. In the 1970s, work from home often meant briefcases stuffed with paperwork. By the 1990s, it meant phone calls and floppy disks. In the twenty-first century, the rise of the internet facilitated collaboration at a distance. By 2019, the work-from-home share had reached 7 percent, and it seemed reasonable to anticipate a gradual rise in the years ahead. Then came the pandemic. Social-distancing mandates and fear of COVID-19 drove a sudden, massive shift to work from home. Much of that shift has endured. According to data from the US Census Bureau's Household Pulse Survey (2022- 2023) and our own Survey of Working Arrangements and Attitudes (Barrero et al. 2020-2023; https://wfhresearch.com/), full days worked from home account for 28 percent of paid workdays in June 2023-four times the estimated share for 2019. The pandemic catalyzed the big shift to work from home, but earlier developments made it possible. Critical tools for remote work include web-based