COVID-19 and remote work: an early look at US data

We report the results of a nationally-representative sample of the US population on how they are adapting to the [Coronavirus Disease 2019] COVID-19 pandemic. The survey ran from April 1-5, 2020. Of those employed four weeks earlier, 34.1 per cent report they were commuting and are now working from home. In addition, 11.8 per cent report being laid-off or furloughed in the last 4 weeks. There is a strong negative relationship between the fraction in a state still commuting to work and the fraction working from home which suggests that many workers currently commuting could be converted...  [+] Show more

We report the results of a nationally-representative sample of the US population on how they are adapting to the [Coronavirus Disease 2019] COVID-19 pandemic. The survey ran from April 1-5, 2020. Of those employed four weeks earlier, 34.1 per cent report they were commuting and are now working from home. In addition, 11.8 per cent report being laid-off or furloughed in the last 4 weeks. There is a strong negative relationship between the fraction in a state still commuting to work and the fraction working from home which suggests that many workers currently commuting could be converted to remote workers. We find that the share of people switching to remote work can be predicted by the incidence of COVID-19 and that younger people were more likely to switch to remote work. Furthermore, using data on state unemployment insurance (UI) claims, we find that states with higher fractions of remote workers have higher-than-expected UI claims.

Published abstract.