Remote work saves commuters in the United States nearly an hour per day, a new study finds, and the reclaimed time is mostly dedicated to extra work.
Savings in commute time among those working from home during the pandemic was 55 minutes per day in the U.S. and averaged 72 minutes on average across the 27 countries studied, researchers concluded in a working paper circulated Monday by the National Bureau of Economic Research.
When also accounting for those who never worked from home, the data showed that remote work saved about two hours of travel time per week per worker in 2021 and 2022. As many employers are expected to allow less remote work in the future, the researchers predict work from home will eventually end up saving about an hour per week per worker after the pandemic.
10% OF WORKERS PLAN TO SOCIALLY DISTANCE INDEFINITELY, CRIMPING WORKFORCE: STUDY
Another key finding is that much of the time saved on commuting is being used for extra work, rather than other activities. On average, those who work from home devote 40% of their saved time to primary and secondary jobs, 34% to leisure, and 11% to caregiving activities, according to the results of the working paper, which has not yet been peer-reviewed.
The research was conducted by several economists across the world, including Nicholas Bloom of Stanford, Steven Davis of the University of Chicago, and Pablo Zarate of Princeton.
Bloom and Davis have worked together on other research about work and its relation to the pandemic. Last year, they published a paper that found more than a tenth of American workers say they will keep social distancing even after the coronavirus pandemic ends, placing a permanent drag on the workforce.
The research concluded that more than 10% of those in the country with recent work experience will continue “long social distancing” indefinitely, and an additional 45% said they will continue to social distance in limited ways. The study is based on a proprietary survey of thousands of working-age people with prior-year earnings since May 2020.
As the pandemic abates, more employers have been calling workers back into the office. That trend could accelerate. The labor market is expected to worsen this year in response to the Federal Reserve’s aggressive series of interest rate hikes.
As the country emerged from the pandemic, employers were struggling to attract and retain workers, meaning that the workers often had the upper hand in negotiations and could successfully push for concessions such as more remote work.
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While the labor market is still humming along, with the unemployment rate at a staggeringly low 3.5% last month, most economists expect that the economy will dip into a recession later this year.
Last week, the World Economic Forum, which held its annual meeting in Switzerland, announced that nearly two-thirds of chief economists surveyed now expect a recession in the coming year. Additionally, the share of economists saying a recession is “extremely likely” has more than doubled since September.
