5 Times More New Jerseyans Working From Home Compared To 2019: Census

NEW JERSEY — Nearly 1 million New Jerseyans worked primarily from home in 2021, according to federal estimates. That's almost a quarter of the state's workforce and nearly five times higher than the number of residents working remotely just two years prior.

The U.S. Census Bureau's estimates offer one of the most expansive looks into data on how the pandemic changed work in New Jersey. During the last decade, working from home steadily grew in popularity among New Jerseyans, going from 145,551 remote employees in 2010 to 217,410 in 2019.

Working from home, of course, became more common in March 2020, once COVID restrictions began. But there was uncertainty about how many of those jobs would remain fully or partially remote once pandemic restrictions softened.

While the Census Bureau doesn't have data for 2020 — COVID's most disruptive year — the agency's American Community Survey showed a spike in the work setup from 2019-21. Last year, 977,514 people in New Jersey worked from home — a 350 percent increase from two years prior — according to census estimates.

Federal officials estimate that 22.1 percent of New Jersey workers 16 and older conducted business from home last year, compared to 4.9 percent in 2019. The rest of the nation saw similar trends. Between 2019 and 2021, the number of people primarily working from home tripled from 5.9 percent (about 9 million people) to 17.9 percent (27.6 million people).

"Work and commuting are central to American life, so the widespread adoption of working from home is a defining feature of the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Michael Burrows, a U.S. Census statistician. "With the number of people who primarily work from home tripling over just a two-year period, the pandemic has very strongly impacted the commuting landscape in the United States."

Additionally, New Jersey's average commute to work in 2010 was 30.3 minutes. That figure grew to 33.1 minutes in 2019 but fell to 28.6 minutes last year.

Find more data in the U.S. Census Bureau's American Community Survey.