Remote work in the United States has settled well above where it started but clearly below its peak. Census Bureau data show 13.8% of U.S. workers usually worked from home in 2023, more than twice the 5.7% who did so in 2019, but down from 17.9% in 2021. For a small business, that plateau is the planning number.
What share of U.S. workers actually work from home?
In 2023, 13.8% of U.S. workers usually worked from home, according to American Community Survey data published by the Census Bureau. In absolute terms the shift is larger than the percentage makes it sound: around 9 million people worked from home in 2019, and by 2023 that figure had passed 22 million.
One definitional caveat matters before you use this number for anything. The ACS asks about a worker's usual means of getting to work, so someone in an office three days a week and at home two is generally counted as a commuter. The 13.8% is therefore a floor for remote work rather than a full measure of it, and the true hybrid population sits somewhere above it. Treat the figure as the share of genuinely home-based workers, not the share of people who ever work from home.
How much has remote work changed since 2019?
The arc is a spike followed by a partial retreat that has not gone anywhere near the starting point. The share of U.S. workers usually working from home ran 5.7% in 2019, 17.9% in 2021, 15.2% in 2022 and 13.8% in 2023. Three years of decline from the peak still leaves the rate at roughly two and a half times its pre-pandemic level.
The useful way to read that sequence is as settling rather than reverting. Each annual step down has been smaller than the one before it, which is the shape of a series finding a level rather than one heading back to where it began. Note also that the ACS is annual and published with a lag, so the most recent figure describes a year already behind us — it is a good trend instrument and a poor nowcast.
Who works from home, and why it matters to a small employer
Home-based workers are not a cross-section of the workforce, and for a small business hiring into a remote role that is the practically important finding. Their median age in 2023 was 43.5, close to two years above the 41.7 median for the workforce overall. They also earn more: in the New York and Chicago metros, median earnings for home-based workers ran above $80,000, against under $70,000 in the Houston metro.
The gap shows up at the other end of the distribution too. Around 3.6% of home-based workers were below the poverty level in 2023, compared with 9.3% of workers who commuted by public transportation. Remote work in the U.S. skews older, better paid and more secure than work generally.
For a small employer, the consequence is a budgeting one rather than a cultural one. Posting a role as remote does not widen your applicant pool into a cheaper market; it moves you into a pool that is older, better paid and being courted by employers with deeper pockets. Our small business hiring trends and employment statistics pages cover what firms are actually paying and planning.
What remote work changes about small business costs and cash flow
The savings story is real but slower and smaller than it looks, and the spending comes first. Reducing premises costs usually means waiting out a lease, while the equipment, software, connectivity and security spend that makes remote work function starts immediately and then recurs. The net effect in year one is frequently negative even when the multi-year case is sound.
That timing mismatch is a working capital problem rather than a profitability one, which is a distinction worth being precise about. The business is not less viable for equipping people to work from home; it simply pays in month one for a saving that arrives in month fourteen. Where the purchase is hardware with a useful life, equipment financing matches the cost to the life of the asset rather than draining the operating account. Where the gap is timing across the whole transition, a revolving facility such as a business line of credit generally fits better than a lump sum, because you draw only when the gap actually opens. Our small business cash flow statistics put the pattern in context.
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One 2-minute application is matched to the funders whose guidelines you meet. It's free, and checking your options won't affect your credit score.
See What I Qualify For →The bottom line: Remote work has settled at roughly two and a half times its 2019 level, and the workers it reaches are older and better paid than the workforce overall.
Found these figures useful? You are welcome to cite or link to this page. Suggested attribution: “Remote Work Statistics for Small Business”, The Broker Shop — thebrokershopinc.com/remote-work-small-business-statistics.html. Every figure links to its original primary source.