Report: Austin leads US cities in remote worker share

AUSTIN (KXAN) — A new report found about one in every four Austin workers is part of the remote workforce.

The report, published Wednesday, found Austin's metro has the country's largest share of work-from-home employees.

CoworkingMag, a digital magazine focused on coworking, used U.S. Census Bureau data to measure changes in remote work across 109 metro areas between 2014 and 2023. The number of remote workers peaked in 2021, as a result of the pandemic.

About a quarter of Austin workers are remote employees, according to the report. The 24.9% share is greater than the national average of 13.8%, according to CoworkingMag.

The Austin metro had a 261% increase in teleworkers between 2014 and 2023, the report found, which is above the national average of 207%.

Raleigh, North Carolina (24.5%), Denver, Colorado (22.3%), Washington D.C. (21.9%), Charlotte, North Carolina (21.5%) and Portland, Oregon (21.2%) follow Austin for the large shares of remote workers. The report found Omaha, Nebraska; Akron, Ohio; Harrisburg, Pennsylvania; and Detroit had the highest increases in remote worker share between 2014 and 2023.

A 2023 report said Austin gained 28,000 remote workers during the pandemic, which was the largest net gain of remote workers in the US.