32 Million Telecommuters in US
Cahners In-Stat says 25% of the workforce will telecommute by 2004
Analyst firm Cahners In-Stat Group issued a report saying 32 million Americans work from home at least some time during the week.
Cahners believes telecommuters constitute 24% of the workforce, a number that has increased dramatically since home Internet access has gained adoption.
Persons who work for small businesses comprise the greatest chunk of teleworkers – approximately 28% of small business employees work from home at some time. A much smaller slice of enterprise workers – 5 million workers or 10% - use the Internet to work from home.
The report indicates the ranks of telecommuters will continue to swell, predicting 28% of the workforce or 40 million workers will work from home in 2004.
Cahners says the main beneficiaries of telecommuting (aside from the workers themselves) will be VPN vendors and broadband ISPs.