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Elsevier

Journal of Public Economics

Volume 189, September 2020, 104235
Journal of Public Economics

How many jobs can be done at home?

Author links open overlay panelJonathan I.DingelBrentNeiman
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Highlights

*

    We classify the feasibility of working at home for all
    occupations.

*

    37% of jobs in the United States can be performed entirely at
    home.

*

    Jobs that can be done at home typically pay more.

*

    Lower-income economies have a lower share of jobs that can be
    done at home.

Abstract

Evaluating the economic impact of "social distancing" measures taken
to arrest the spread of COVID-19 raises a fundamental question about
the modern economy: how many jobs can be performed at home? We
classify the feasibility of working at home for all occupations and
merge this classification with occupational employment counts. We
find that 37% of jobs in the United States can be performed entirely
at home, with significant variation across cities and industries.
These jobs typically pay more than jobs that cannot be done at home
and account for 46% of all US wages. Applying our occupational
classification to 85 other countries reveals that lower-income
economies have a lower share of jobs that can be done at home.

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Keywords

Remote work
Telecommuting
Work from home
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^

    We thank Menglu Xu and Mingjie Zhu for research assistance. A
    preliminary version of this research reporting results only for
    the United States appeared in the first issue of CEPR's Covid
    Economics: Vetted and Real-Time Papers. We are grateful to Megan
    Fasules for invaluable feedback on that version. In a subsequent
    version, we added results for 85 other countries and discussed
    related subsequent research. We thank the editor and three
    anonymous referees for suggestions that improved our presentation
    of our classification procedure and resulting geographic
    variation across US cities. Dingel thanks the James S. Kemper
    Foundation Faculty Research Fund at the University of Chicago
    Booth School of Business. Neiman thanks the William Ladany
    Faculty Foundation at the University of Chicago Booth School of
    Business and the Becker Friedman Institute at the University of
    Chicago for financial support.

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(c) 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

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