Coronavirus accelerates a growing trend.

 

According to a new report by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 34 per cent of Americans who previously commuted to work report that they were working from home by the first week of April due to the coronavirus. 

 

Prior to the pandemic, the number of people regularly working from home remained in the single digits, with only about four per cent of the US workforce working from home at least half the time. 

 

However, the trend of working from home had been gaining momentum incrementally for years, as technology and company cultures increasingly accommodated it. 

 

So it’s also likely that many people who are now working from home for the first time will continue to do so after the pandemic.

 

“Once they’ve done it, they’re going to want to continue,” said Kate Lister, president of consulting firm Global Workplace Analytics, which is currently running a survey about work-from-home participation. 

 

She predicts that 30 per cent of people will work from home multiple days per week within a couple of years. Lister added that there has been pent-up demand by employees for greater work-life flexibility, and that the coronavirus has made their employers see the light, especially as they themselves have had to work from home.