Americans staying put
There are certain things that people say that sound so true that others repeat them credulously without feeling the need to cite evidence. Two covid-era favorites: everybody’s working from home (WFH). And people have decamped en masse for the hinterlands, thanks to WFH. Neither is really true. I wrote about the slim WFH numbers in September. In July, which was the most recent month available then, 13.2% of the employed were teleworking, the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ favored term. In October, that had fallen to 11.6% (graph below). Their ranks were still… Read More
Work from home: mostly for the high end
Judging from the media coverage of the work from home (WFH) phenomenon, you’d think it’s become near universal. It’s not. In July, only about one in eight workers were teleworking—the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ (BLS) preferred term—and those are heavily concentrated in a few sectors and occupations, and among the highly credentialed. According to BLS stats, in July 2021, just 13% of workers are doing so remotely because of the pandemic, down from 35% in May 2020, the first month the numbers were collected. (See graph below.) And that initial 35% number… Read More
Fresh audio product
Just added to my radio archive (click on date for link): January 21, 2021 Réka Juhász, co-author of this paper, on the shift from home to factory as a precedent for the shift from office to home today • Vanessa Williamson, author of this article, on the roots of “taxpayer” discourse in Southern elites’ successful attempt to disenfranchise black citizens and reverse Reconstruction
LBO News from Doug Henwood 