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<br /> <br />r <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />CENBR/98-2 \ Issued March 1998 <br /> <br />CENSUS <br />BRIEF <br /> <br />.....~~ <br />u.s. Department of Commerce I \i " <br />Economics and $tatj'(ics Adminislrahon. 1&J . <br />BUREAU OF THE (USUS \ l:tJ / <br />_.- <br /> <br />- - - - - -"- -- - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - -- - ---- <br /> <br />Increase in At-Home Workers <br />Reverses Earlier Trend <br /> <br />m ETWEEN 1960 AND 1980, the number of Americans <br />. who worked at home steadily de c It'ned,largelyr e - <br />I fleeting a drop in the number offamily farmers who <br />elected to Bive up farming. . ~"tl!e,~-.t-.:~.t <br />~,"",Aisin4990 sOOWS adnlIn1itic"lilCreiiSebFilie <br />,:~=:~~al'llOme\llP 56peccelltfrom <br /> <br />This Census Brief analyzes trends in work-aI-home pat- <br />terns: who these workers are, what kind of work they do and <br />how often they do it. ~, <br /> <br />'~:a:I990~}Wt:' _:si~1 <br />Cilli~lii the1JropOrli;;n~ng.1 bilinebj'Cens1Jfl <br />~l!l)lIrl .' . <br /> <br /> <br />CONSERVATIVE ESTIMATES <br /> <br />The Census Bureau's 1990 estimate of the num- <br />ber ofpo:;op!e working at hom~ is Suhst;>'Iltia!ly1ower <br />than more recent private surveys that are based on <br />smaller samples or anecdotal evidence. For ex- <br />ample, a 1997 survey prepared for Telecommute <br />America estimates that the number of Americans <br />"telecommuting" via computer from their homes to <br />their businesses rose from abouI4 million in 1990 <br />to approximately II million in 1997. <br />The census data may be lower because they are <br />based on respondents' answers to a question about <br />how they "usually" get to work. Therefore, indi- <br />viduals who regularly work at home one or two days <br />a week, but elsewhere during the other three days, <br />are not reflected in the work-at-home census esti- <br />mate. <br />From a separate survey, Characteristics of Bus i- <br />ness Owners, the Census Bureau reports that nearly <br />half of the 17 million small businesses in the United <br /> <br />States in 1992 were home-hased. But most home-hased small <br />business owners said they worked less than 40 hours a week <br />and their businesses were not their primary source of in- <br />come. This is consistent with both the popular notion that <br />more people are working at home and the Census Bureau's <br />calculation from the 1990 census that only 3 percent of the <br />work force worked at home on a full-time basis. <br /> <br />INCREASE REPRESENTS A DRAMATIC REVERSAL <br /> <br />Despite the Census Bureau's conservative method of <br />counting at-home workers, the 1990 increase in the number <br />of Americans who worked at home represents a dramatic <br />reversal of the previous 20-year trend. Between 1960 and <br />1980, the sleep decline in the number of family farmer.; and <br />the growing tendency of professionals. such as doctors and <br />lawyers, to leave their home offices and join group practices <br /> <br /> <br />4:663Mo <br /> <br /> <br />3,406,000 <br /> <br />2,685,000 <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />..... 2,178.000.. <br /> <br /> <br />1980 <br /> <br />1990 <br /> <br />1960 <br /> <br />1970 <br /> <br />U.S. OepartmentofCornmerce: OURf/lU OF THE CENSUS <br />