Denise Kenson-Liu works from her Snellville home on Fri, Feb.18, 2011. Bob Andres bandres@ajc.com
Are you working in your pajamas today?
If so, you’re probably among a growing number of telecommuters in American cities, and especially Atlanta.
The latest Census data shows Atlanta is one of the cities with the largest increase in telecommuting since 2000. Brookings parsed the numbers from the 2014 American Community Survey data and produced an interesting graphic showing how popular working remotely has become.
Six percent of workers in Atlanta telecommute, which is double the number of commuters who use transit. Nationally, more people take public transportation than telecommute (5.2 percent and 4.5 percent respectively.)
In Atlanta and across the country, the vast majority of people still drive alone to work. However, growth in alternative commutes like taking transit, bicycling and teleworking represents a significant shift in the country's overall commute patterns.
Brookings noted:
The continued surge in remote working offers perhaps the most widespread evidence of these changing commute patterns, helping lower costs and take cars off the road. From 2000 to 2014, nearly 2.4 million more people—or 13 percent of all new commuters—are working at home to bring their national total to 6.5 million. Moreover, the share of workers at home has risen from 3.2 percent to 4.5 percent, surpassing the rate of growth in all other commuting categories and building off a series of emerging work patterns in the public and private sector.
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