Nearly one-fifth of employees in Connecticut worked from home during the pandemic, as offices closed and businesses adopted work-from-home procedures – an increase of 248% from 2019, according to new U.S. Census Bureau data from the Connecticut Data Collaborative.
In 2019, only 5.6% of Connecticut-based employees reported working from home, according to the data.
At the same time, the number of workers whose jobs were located in Connecticut increased from 92.5% in 2019 to 94.1% in 2021, likely due to travel restrictions, along with an increase in residents employed by companies outside the state who began working from home, the report says.
Meanwhile, the service industry saw a decrease in workers as the pandemic forced venues to close. But Connecticut’s unemployment rate increased 1.4 percentage points, from 5.3% in 2019 to 6.7% in 2021.
Also, the data shows that the cost-burden of renting an apartment grew. From 2019 to 2021, among the 33% of Connecticut householders who rent, the median monthly rent increased from $1,117 to $1,277. Among renters, the percentage who spent 35% or more of their gross household income on rent increased by 2.3 percentage points, from 40.6% in 2019 to 42.9% in 2021.
As a result of higher demand, the number of vacant housing units decreased from 9.7% in 2019 to 7% in 2021. During the same period, householders who own their housing unit increased by 1.6 percentage points from 65% to 66.6%.