- Are you watching this video cozied up on the couch, or maybe taking in a sneaky scroll during work hours?

- For many American workers, both could be true at the same time.

Remote work has been a hot topic these last four years because of the massive shifts it's made in both where and how we work.

- But how does it affect our economy?

Whether you regularly clock in from the kitchen table or you've never had the opportunity to work from home, remote work could be affecting your wages, housing costs, even inflation.

- So it's time we understand what the rise of remote work means for all of us and whether it's worth it.

(bright music) (music stops) - Zoom may have been founded in 2011, but the rise of remote work started way before that.

The percentage of workers who do their jobs primarily from home has been steadily increasing since the 1960s.

- As communication technology improved over the '90s and early 2000s, companies like IBM and Best Buy started allowing some employees to telecommute, but both pilot programs were killed in the aftermath of the 2008 recession.

Still, that small percentage of remote workers in the US kept increasing, until 2020 when the onset of the COVID pandemic pushed roughly 35% of workers to home offices overnight.

- And despite the unusual circumstances, a majority of surveyed employees reported that working from home was a positive change.

For many, it made corporate culture more inclusive.

Working parents noted that remote work made it easier to balance childcare responsibilities with their work schedules.

- In a time of widespread layoffs and furloughs, disabled people of working age saw a 3.5% increase in employment rates because remote work allowed them to manage their health needs in ways that typical office work does not.

- And Black women surveyed by the Cornell School of Industrial and Labor Relations said that remote work allowed them to process news about racist violence without having to put on a happy face for coworkers and reduced the number of microaggressions they faced, like coworkers touching their hair.

- Remote work didn't level the playing field for everyone though.

The jobs that went remote in 2020 were largely white collar, knowledge sector jobs, while workers in industries like agriculture or retail still had to show up in person.

- These remote jobs tend to pay higher wages than jobs that can only be done IRL, with 56% of upper-income workers reporting they could work remotely compared to 24% of lower-income workers.

So it's possible that the rise of remote work is contributing to a growing class divide where only the already privileged can enjoy the benefits of working from home.

- Remote workers also complained of loneliness, expectations of round-the-clock availability, back pain from those non-ergonomic chairs.

Still, 58% of white-collar workers say they prefer to work from home at least some of the time.

- Employers saw some benefits too.

When hiring for new roles, they expanded their talent pool from locals only to state or even nationwide, giving them more qualified candidates to select from.

And some studies suggest that remote workers may be more productive, working longer hours on average than in-person employees.

- But we can't just look at whether remote work is good for companies or good for workers.

Let's look at the big picture of how the shift has affected the economy as a whole.

- Take the real estate market.

Through the 2010s, interest rates were at historic lows and companies with cheap access to cash expanded their corporate footprints.

But as those employees traded startup offices full of nap pods for working from their actual bedrooms, their bosses saw less need for all that extra space.

- [Julia] In cities like New York and Washington, D.C., 20 to 30% of commercial real estate currently sits vacant.

Building regulations make it difficult to convert this space for residential use, so commercial real estate investors unable to find new tenants have a little choice but to eat their losses.

- And as fewer workers commute to office spaces, the surrounding businesses struggle too.

Pharmacies, dry cleaners, and the fast casual spot where you bought your sad desk salad are feeling the effects of lower foot traffic.

- And it's also hitting us at home.

As remote workers seek out living arrangements with more space for a home office or fewer roommates to walk through the background of their Zoom calls, demand for housing has increased.

Researchers from the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco claim telecommuting contributed to a 24% increase in US housing prices between 2019 and 2022.

- It's not all bad news though.

One upside is that remote work cut the average telecommuter's carbon emissions by half, as they skipped gas-guzzling commutes and kept resource-intensive office buildings closed.

With damage from extreme climate events already costing the US $150 billion a year, reducing emissions is a smart move for both the environment and the economy.

- There's also evidence that while remote work threw real estate markets for a loop, it may have had a moderating effect on inflation.

Usually in times of high inflation, workers seek higher pay in order to keep up with increasing prices.

Then, to make up for their increased labor costs, businesses raise prices even higher.

- But, as a 2021 survey reported, 75% of workers said they would choose remote work over a pay increase, and it's likely that over the past three years they did just that.

This trade-off may have held off subsequent price inflation by as much as 50%.

- It also means that wage growth was slower, which leads us to another workplace trend that remote work has made a little weirder.

Researchers, and maybe your bosses, have debated whether a lack of spontaneous face-to-face collaboration affects our ability to work together.

- [Philip] Maybe that doesn't really matter when it comes to making PowerPoint presentations, but collaboration is important in labor unions.

Since 2020, we've seen a wave of labor organizing activity, from Starbucks baristas and Amazon warehouse workers forming new unions, to UPS delivery drivers and Hollywood actors striking for better working conditions and fairer wages.

- In 2022, the number of union petitions filed increased by more than 50% from the previous years, and there's a lot of overlap between industries with high union membership and those where workers can't go remote.

Maybe there's something to that idea that in-person work fosters a special kind of collaboration.

- We can't claim that remote work is all good or bad for the economy.

Just like telecommuting's impact on our personal lives, it's a bit of a mixed bag.

It seems that many companies recognize this too, with 41% of them implementing hybrid work schedules.

- Still, in the current tight labor market, workers may have enough of an upper hand to press for more flexibility, though if they wanna bring their coworkers in on that cause, they might have to come into the office.