Heterogeneity in Work from Home: Evidence from Six U.S. Datasets

This article documents heterogeneity in work from home (WFH) using six nationally representative U.S. surveys. These surveys show consistent patterns indicating that pre-pandemic differences in WFH rates by sex, education, and state of residence expanded following the COVID-19 outbreak. The surveys also show similar post-pandemic trends in WFH by firm size and industry. We find that an industry’s WFH potential was highly correlated with actual WFH during the first year or two of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, this correlation was much weaker before and after, suggesting that WFH potential is a necessary but not sufficient determinant of actual WFH.