Census: 9.3 Million People Worked @ Home.

During a typical week in the spring and summer of 1997, about 7 percent of U.S. workers (9.3 million people) worked at least one full day at home, according to a report released by the Commerce Department’s Census Bureau. About two-thirds (6.4 million) of these people worked only at home, while about one-third (2.9 million) split their time between home
and some other work location.

“The typical home-based worker in 1997 worked exclusively at home and many operated home-based businesses,” said Clara Reschovsky, co-author of Home-Based Workers in the United States: 1997.

Among those who split their work time between home and another location, a ratio of 3-in-5 worked only one day a week at home and 1-in-5 worked two days at home.

Other report highlights:

-Of the 6.4 million people who worked exclusively at home, 50 percent were self-employed and 54 percent were women.

-Among people who split their work time between home and other locations, 52 percent were employed in executive, administrative, managerial and professional occupations. Those who split their work time also had high levels of educational attainment (52 percent with a bachelor’s degree or higher) and high earnings.

-Average annual earnings were about $15,000 a year more for those who worked both at home and at other locations than for people who worked only at home or who never worked at home.

The estimates are based on data collected in a four-month period from April to July 1997 as part of the 1996 panel of the Survey of Income and Program Participation. Statistics from sample surveys are subject to sampling and nonsampling errors.