Work at Home: New Findings from the Current Population Survey.

Abstract

For some Americans, there is no separation of gainful work between the home and the workplace. A large number of persons regularly squeeze extra hours into their workweek by performing job-related chores at home . Others have completely eliminated the trip to work by setting up businesses or performing work-for-hire while at home . In May 1985, the Bureau of Labor Statistics made its first attempt to determine the size of the home-based work force. Along with other questions on work practices, the respondents to the May survey were asked whether: As part of . . . (the worker)'s regularly scheduled work, does . . . (he/she) do any of (his/her) work for . . . (the principal employer) at home? Persons answering affirmatively were asked to estimate the number of hours of work done at home . While more than 18 million people responded affirmatively, almost half of them worked at home for less than 8 hours a week . Another 770,000 were farmers or farm laborers . The remainder, nearly 8.4 million persons, had worked at home for 8 hours or more in the reference week, as part of a nonfarm job. They are the focus of most of the analysis which follows. It should be noted that persons working at home on a second job or business were not counted among home-based