UTAH
Heber has one of the highest rates of remote workers in the country
Aug 30, 2022, 5:30 PM
FILE: Main Street in Heber City is pictured on Thursday, May 6, 2021. (Kristin Murphy/Deseret News)
(Kristin Murphy/Deseret News)
SALT LAKE CITY — Nearly 15% of the population in Heber, Utah worked from home in the years prior to the pandemic, and in 2020. And that places the town in Wasatch County among the top ten cities in the United States for remote workers.
Heber ranks number seven, behind Vineyard Haven, Massachusetts, Faribault-Northfield, Minnesota, Truckee-Grass Valley, California, Boulder, Colorado, Clearlake, California, and Brookings, Oregon.
The study was conducted by SysAid, an IT service management company. The company came to its conclusions by analyzing remote work information from 938 areas in the United States, found in the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey.
The time period included in the ACS included the years between 2015 and 2020, and counted civilian workers aged 16 and above.
General observations about remote work taken from the ACS include:
- remote working in US cities increased by 23.8% as compared to pre-pandemic levels;
- on average, 5.35% of jobs in US cities are remote;
- Washington D.C., Colorado, and Oregon have the highest proportion of remote workers;
- the lowest proportion of remote workers are in Mississippi, Puerto Rico, and Louisiana.
A 2021 survey from Teamflow ranked the state of Utah as fifth in the nation for the number of people who were working remotely.
Overall, the company said it was surprised that, on average, in the first year of the pandemic, only one in 20 Americans that lived in cities, worked remotely.
“We expected this number to be much higher, considering the importance of social distancing at the beginning of the pandemic,” a SysAid spokesman said.
Despite lower than expected numbers, SysAid said their research found that nearly 20% of American industries, including information, professional, scientific and administration services, could move a lot of their operations off-site.
Related:
- Software company lists Salt Lake City as a top city for remote work
- Working from home has its upsides and downsides
- Money Making Sense: Some would rather quit if they can’t work from home
