Download Report: How the Coronavirus Outbreak Has – and Hasn’t – Changed the Way Americans Work

December 27, 2020

About half of new teleworkers say they have more flexibility now; majority who are working in person worry about virus exposure


The abrupt closure of many offices and workplaces this past spring ushered in a new era of remote work for millions of employed Americans and may portend a significant shift in the way a large segment of the workforce operates in the future. Most workers who say their job responsibilities can mainly be done from home say that, before the pandemic, they rarely or never teleworked. Only one-in-five say they worked from home all or most of the time. Now, 71% of those workers are doing their job from home all or most of the time. And more than half say, given a choice, they would want to keep working from home even after the pandemic, according to a new Pew Research Center survey.

Pew Research