Albany Metro’s Work from Home Rate Tripled in 2021, Compared to Pre-Pandemic
Between 2019 and 2021, the number of people working from home (WFH) in the Albany-Schenectady-Troy metropolitan statistical area (MSA) more than tripled, though its WFH rate only rose to the 16th highest level in Northeast, according to a Center for Economic Growth (CEG) of new U.S. Census Bureau one-year estimates from the 2021 American Community Survey.
One year into the pandemic, in 2021, an estimated 83,318 workers 16 years and older in the five-county Albany metro area worked from home. That was an increase of 58,703, or 226.1 percent, from 2019’s estimate. That meant in 2021, 19.2 percent of the Albany metro’s workforce was engaged in WFH, compared to 5.5 percent two years earlier. The WFH rate for the Glens Falls MSA (Warren and Washington counties) was 11.2 percent in 2021, up from 4.7 percent in 2019.
At an estimated 31,347, Albany County accounted for 82.9 percent of the metro’s WFH workforce in 2021, compared to 55.7 percent in 2019. During that two-year period, female workers in the Albany metro grew their ranks the fastest, up 249.5 percent to 45,493, compared to men at 226.1 percent to 37,825. Amid the growth of the WFH workforce, the Albany metro’s average commute decreased to 23 minutes in 2021 from 23.8 minutes in 2019.
In New York, the New York-Newark-Jersey City MSA had the highest 2021 WFH rate of 22.8 percent. In the Northeast, the Trenton-Princeton MSA had the highest WFH rate of 28 percent. And among the 340 metros for which data is available, the Boulder MSA had the highest rate of 36.3 percent.
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