Oct 24, 2017
Austinites give daily commute the boot
AUSTIN – More people are working from home in the Austin area than any other major U.S. city, according to Census Bureau data. Nearly 9 percent of people ages 16 and...
AUSTIN – More people are working from home in the Austin area than any other major U.S. city, according to Census Bureau data.
Nearly 9 percent of people ages 16 and up with jobs in the Austin area telecommute, the data show.
The national average is 5 percent.
So what’s up with Austin? Why do so many people work from home here?
Kara Kockelman, an engineering professor at the University of Texas, offered some insights into why:
EDUCATION
- Austin has a lot of highly educated people, and those people tend to work in white-collar professional jobs where it’s possible to work from home.
TECH JOBS
- Austin also has a large number of people who work in the tech industry, which is known for jobs that are tethered to a computer and could be done virtually anywhere. There are roughly 120,000 people who work in Austin’s tech industry.
TWO-WORKER HOUSEHOLDS
- Census data show that about 40 percent of Austin’s households have at least two workers.
TRAFFIC
- And lastly, there’s the Austin traffic.
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