[CTPP] [CTPP-News] Telecommuting in the US

If the report is online, maybe Phil or Gloria could tell us. 05/07/98- Updated 10:58 AM ET More Americans telecommuting WASHINGTON - When Thomas Wolfe wrote "you can't go home again" he obviously wasn't thinking of America's workers. In the decade of the 1980s the number of people working at home jumped 56%, the Census Bureau reported Thursday. And it's no doubt a lot higher now. Previously unpublished data from the 1990 Census showed 3,406,025 people working at home that year, 3% of all working people. That was up from 2,179,863 who worked at home in 1980, a figure that had been declining since it was first measured in 1960. "The decade of the 1980s marked a rebirth of work at home in the United States," reported Census population expert Phillip A. Salopek. "It is noteworthy that this impressive growth occurred before the expansion of the Internet." Thanks to the growth of computer use, the bureau noted that a 1997 survey for Telecommute America estimated the number of people "telecommuting" to work via computer had reached 11 million. In 1960, when the Census Bureau first asked about working at home, it found 4,662,750 people in that category. That fell to 2,685,144 in 1970 and continued to decline in 1980 before turning upward again. "Quite a lot of the decrease" in working at home before 1980 was a result of the decline in family farms, explained Census' Gloria Swieczkowski. Why the sudden turnaround: "I don't guess we really know that for sure." She said Census and private population analysts are eager to see the total who work at home in the upcoming Census 2000. The Census report on people working at home in 1990 showed: A slim majority, 52%, were women, although they made up just 45% of people who worked outside the home. Home workers were 92% white, 4% black and 5% Hispanic. Those working outside the home were 83% white, 10% black and just under 8% Hispanic. Hispanics can be member of any race and are included in figures for blacks, whites and others. Some 54% of home workers were self-employed, compared with 5.5% of workers outside the home. By The Associated Press