The US has seen an increase in the number of people who work from home, at least part-time.
According to the US Census Bureau, around 13 million people in the country – or 9.4 per cent of the 2010 working population – work from home at least one day a week. This represents a notable increase on the seven per cent of people who worked at least partly from home back in 1997.
It seems that computer engineering and science jobs are the sectors most likely to have seen a shift towards remote working, with a jump of around 70 per cent recorded over the decade to 2010.
The Census Bureau also found that commutes are on the rise, with eight per cent of US workers travelling an hour or more to get to their place of work. The option to work from home helps to make this less of a strain on workers by allowing them to take a day away from a busy commute every so often.
Working from home is not going to be right for every job or employee, but it is encouraging to see that one of the world's largest economies is embracing new technology to allow its labour force the flexibility of working away from the office at least on the odd occasion. 
