The remote work revolution is already reshaping America, but mainly in cities; remote and rural are not synonymous

Percentage of days worked from home, estimated by applying industry and remote-work trends from November 2021 through June 2022 to 2015-19 industry and occupation data, excluding agriculture. (Washington Post map)

A tsunami of city-dwellers decamped from America's largest cities in the early pandemic, enabled by lockdown work-from-home policies. It will be years before we can get a comprehensive picture of pandemic migration trends, but one thing seems clear: the remote- and hybrid-work trend is here to stay, and it's already reshaping American economic and demographic trends, Andrew Van Dam reports for The Washington Post.

Nearly two-thirds of work was done remotely during the pandemic lockdown in 2020; though many companies have reeled workers back to the office, remote work has stabilized at an "extraordinarily high level" since then, with about one-third of work being done remotely in the U.S. in 2021 and 2022. A Gallup poll "found 29 percent of remote-capable workers working from home full time in June — down from 39 percent in February — while the share working hybrid schedules rose a comparable amount," Van Dam reports.

The data suggest that remote- or hybrid-workers who move to rural areas tend to go for counties with a recreation-based economy. Such counties boast features attractive to urban workers such as natural beauty and good broadband.

Net domestic migration per 1,000 residents from July 1, 2020 to June 30, 2021
Business Insider map using Census Bureau data; click the image to enlarge it or click here for the interactive version.

However, Van Dam cautions, many remote workers did not move away from cities, and not all who moved went to rural areas. Some went to nearby suburbs or exurban enclaves. But Census Bureau data released in April found that in the year ending June 30, 2021, non-metropolitan counties did have the greatest annual population gain they had seen in over a decade.

Data scientists are starting to get a clearer picture of what type of worker left cities for greener pastures, though it's not clear whether those in particular industries were more likely to move to rural areas (as opposed to suburbs or exurbs). "The highest rates of remote work appear among technology, communications, professional services, and finance and insurance workers, according to data from more than 200,000 businesses using the payroll and benefits provider Gusto," Van Dam reports. Emerging data—and ancedotes—also indicate that many small- and mid-sized companies are sticking with remote and hybrid work because the greater flexibility is beneficial.