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10-30-2004, 01:27 PM
More choosing to work at home
H.J. Cummins, Star Tribune
October 21, 2004 HOME1021
The ranks of working Americans whose morning commute is a short walk from coffeepot to home office or workshop grew by 800,000 from 1990 to 2000, according to numbers released Wednesday by the U.S. Census Bureau.
The 23 percent increase -- to 4.2 million -- is twice the growth rate of the overall workforce. Home-based workers are better educated, less well-paid, more likely to be white and work fewer hours than the U.S. workforce overall.
The new count includes almost 117,000 Minnesotans. Among them is game inventor Kurt Kirckof of Brooten. Besides promoting his children's game, Going-Going Crazy, Kirckof operates an auto body and engine repair shop at the family home. It lets him share parenting with his wife, a nurse, for their five children -- ages 6 months to 11 years.
http://www.startribune.com/stonline/images/news23/DTI_929924.l.jpg
Jim Cutchey of Bloomington, a former body shop manager, works at home to produce his Wrist Shooters hockey game.
Bruce Bisping"To me it's all about the children," he said. "Yesterday they got out of school at noon and I got to pick them up."
Technology that makes remote work easier, and employers' gradual acceptance of off-site work, is driving the increase, demographers said. Another factor is the typical migration into self-employment during the recent economic slump, others said.
"The numbers don't surprise me," said Terri Lonier, founder of Working Solo Inc. in New Paltz, N.Y.
"Those of us involved in this area have seen very active movement for some time," said Lonier, whose company consults on "microbusinesses."What's happening now is people are paying more attention, and the data-gathering is becoming more specific."
Work-family balance
The census snapshot of at-home workers doesn't mirror the American workforce. The home workers tend to be better educated but less driven, on average, than the rest of the workforce. Nationally, for example, more are college-educated -- about 37 percent to 27 percent -- but they work fewer hours and earn less money.
One factor is parents scaling back for work-family balance. Also, all the home-based startups account for some of the low earnings.
Jim Cutchey of Bloomington, for example, left a decadelong career managing auto body shops to try to launch his indoor-hockey training equipment for children. The setup, inspired by his own boyhood hockey play, has taken about two years to get the equipment patented, produced and packaged.
Cutchey hopes his business, Blaze Sports, eventually will outgrow his home.
Amber Bullock of Burnsville, on the other hand, breaks the mold. Her home office handles the phone/e-mail/Web duties of assorted small businesses and associations in the Twin Cities.
She is working harder and earning more than she did before she started her business two years ago, after the birth of her third son. Her Buy Your Time company handles the office work of small businesses as well as associations -- from the Rotary Club to the Minnesota (Dry) Cleaners Association -- that often have no office of their own.
"It's by my own choice," Bullock said. "I'm a workaholic."
Still, she plans to keep her business at home. "I like being able to get up and work in my pajamas if I don't have any meetings," she said.
And in another homey twist: Bullock now employs an assistant a few hours a week, who brings her baby daughter with her.
On the move
Data on Americans working at home are still imperfect. Different surveys use different terms -- such as telecommuting, teleworking, working at home -- and attach different definitions to them, said census demographer Clara Reschovsky.
Even this census count is not definitive. It comes from a question asking the "usual means of transportation to work," and it counts those who answered "worked at home." Reschovsky interprets that to include anyone who works three or more days a week at home, either for themselves or someone else.
The Census Bureau also has issued updated but less accurate estimates for Americans working at home in 2003: 4.5 million nationwide, including more than 122,000 Minnesotans.
Other research offers a broader look. For example, the Bureau of Labor Statistics recently reported that 19 percent of Americans do "some or all" of their work at home.
"That means not only are there a lot of people working at home, there are a lot more people doing at least some of their work at home," said Steve Hine, labor market research director for Minnesota's Department of Employment and Economic Development.
In another trend, home-based businesses are changing traditional approaches to growth, said Ron Wacks in Minneapolis, president of the Minnesota Homebased Entrepreneurs Association.
"The measure of growth in this world is no longer more employees, it's revenues," Wacks said. "I know more people who absolutely, deliberately want to stay in their own homes. One couple built their revenues 30 times bigger without moving out of their house. We don't hire. We subcontract, we partner, we go for alliances, but we're all still at home. This is the model I see for most people."
H.J. Cummins is at hcummins@startribune.com.
H.J. Cummins, Star Tribune
October 21, 2004 HOME1021
The ranks of working Americans whose morning commute is a short walk from coffeepot to home office or workshop grew by 800,000 from 1990 to 2000, according to numbers released Wednesday by the U.S. Census Bureau.
The 23 percent increase -- to 4.2 million -- is twice the growth rate of the overall workforce. Home-based workers are better educated, less well-paid, more likely to be white and work fewer hours than the U.S. workforce overall.
The new count includes almost 117,000 Minnesotans. Among them is game inventor Kurt Kirckof of Brooten. Besides promoting his children's game, Going-Going Crazy, Kirckof operates an auto body and engine repair shop at the family home. It lets him share parenting with his wife, a nurse, for their five children -- ages 6 months to 11 years.
http://www.startribune.com/stonline/images/news23/DTI_929924.l.jpg
Jim Cutchey of Bloomington, a former body shop manager, works at home to produce his Wrist Shooters hockey game.
Bruce Bisping"To me it's all about the children," he said. "Yesterday they got out of school at noon and I got to pick them up."
Technology that makes remote work easier, and employers' gradual acceptance of off-site work, is driving the increase, demographers said. Another factor is the typical migration into self-employment during the recent economic slump, others said.
"The numbers don't surprise me," said Terri Lonier, founder of Working Solo Inc. in New Paltz, N.Y.
"Those of us involved in this area have seen very active movement for some time," said Lonier, whose company consults on "microbusinesses."What's happening now is people are paying more attention, and the data-gathering is becoming more specific."
Work-family balance
The census snapshot of at-home workers doesn't mirror the American workforce. The home workers tend to be better educated but less driven, on average, than the rest of the workforce. Nationally, for example, more are college-educated -- about 37 percent to 27 percent -- but they work fewer hours and earn less money.
One factor is parents scaling back for work-family balance. Also, all the home-based startups account for some of the low earnings.
Jim Cutchey of Bloomington, for example, left a decadelong career managing auto body shops to try to launch his indoor-hockey training equipment for children. The setup, inspired by his own boyhood hockey play, has taken about two years to get the equipment patented, produced and packaged.
Cutchey hopes his business, Blaze Sports, eventually will outgrow his home.
Amber Bullock of Burnsville, on the other hand, breaks the mold. Her home office handles the phone/e-mail/Web duties of assorted small businesses and associations in the Twin Cities.
She is working harder and earning more than she did before she started her business two years ago, after the birth of her third son. Her Buy Your Time company handles the office work of small businesses as well as associations -- from the Rotary Club to the Minnesota (Dry) Cleaners Association -- that often have no office of their own.
"It's by my own choice," Bullock said. "I'm a workaholic."
Still, she plans to keep her business at home. "I like being able to get up and work in my pajamas if I don't have any meetings," she said.
And in another homey twist: Bullock now employs an assistant a few hours a week, who brings her baby daughter with her.
On the move
Data on Americans working at home are still imperfect. Different surveys use different terms -- such as telecommuting, teleworking, working at home -- and attach different definitions to them, said census demographer Clara Reschovsky.
Even this census count is not definitive. It comes from a question asking the "usual means of transportation to work," and it counts those who answered "worked at home." Reschovsky interprets that to include anyone who works three or more days a week at home, either for themselves or someone else.
The Census Bureau also has issued updated but less accurate estimates for Americans working at home in 2003: 4.5 million nationwide, including more than 122,000 Minnesotans.
Other research offers a broader look. For example, the Bureau of Labor Statistics recently reported that 19 percent of Americans do "some or all" of their work at home.
"That means not only are there a lot of people working at home, there are a lot more people doing at least some of their work at home," said Steve Hine, labor market research director for Minnesota's Department of Employment and Economic Development.
In another trend, home-based businesses are changing traditional approaches to growth, said Ron Wacks in Minneapolis, president of the Minnesota Homebased Entrepreneurs Association.
"The measure of growth in this world is no longer more employees, it's revenues," Wacks said. "I know more people who absolutely, deliberately want to stay in their own homes. One couple built their revenues 30 times bigger without moving out of their house. We don't hire. We subcontract, we partner, we go for alliances, but we're all still at home. This is the model I see for most people."
H.J. Cummins is at hcummins@startribune.com.