Maine’s Labor Market During the Pandemic: Impact on Telework
This article is the third published by the Center for Workforce Research and Information (CWRI) about Maine’s labor market during the pandemic. It focuses on how the pandemic has impacted telework. The first article, available here, examines job loss by sector and offers a comparison to the last recession. The second, available here, focuses on the differing job impact by gender that has occurred.
Estimated Employment in Occupations Suited to Telework
Public safety measures, including the implementation of social distancing during the COVID-19
pandemic, led to drastic changes in the way that people perform their jobs. Among the most prominent
changes has been the increased prevalence of telework. While some workers have or eventually will
return to a work environment that is similar to before the pandemic, some may permanently
incorporate telework. For some, telework may have been part of their work environment before the
pandemic. Many others had never worked remotely before the pandemic.
For many occupations, telework is not possible. These include occupations in which goods or services
are produced or delivered in person including in production, construction, installation and repair, direct-service healthcare, and food services related occupations.
Jonathan I. Dingel and Brent Neiman, economists at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business,
used survey data to classify occupations that are suited to telework in their recent paper “How Many
Jobs Can be Done at Home?”. We merged these measures with Occupational Employment Statistics data
and identified over 160,000 Maine jobs for which telework may be substituted for in-person work. These
jobs appear in many areas of the labor market including management, business and financial,
architecture and engineering, sales, office and administrative support, and education and training
related occupations.
Many of the occupations identified are performed in an office environment and require higher levels of
educational attainment or skills for entry. About two thirds of the jobs identified as suited to telework
pay a wage above the 2019 median annual wage of $38,370. Among the lower paying occupations in
which telework is possible, most were found among office and administrative support and personal care
occupations.
Other occupations are identified in which telework is possible though it may not be ideal. For example,
in certain education and training functions telework may be possible through online learning, but may
not be ideal for students, parents, and teachers.
Telework is not possible for many occupations. No jobs were identified as suited to telework in the
construction and extraction, food service, buildings and grounds cleaning, and maintenance and
transportation occupations. The overwhelming majority of jobs in protective service, installation 3
maintenance and repair, and farming fishing and forestry occupations were identified as not suited to
telework.
Among the jobs identified as suited to telework, about 59 percent typically require educational
attainment beyond a high school diploma for entry. About 51 percent require a Bachelor’s degree or
higher level of educational attainment. Among the occupations suited to telework requiring a high
school diploma or lower level of educational attainment, most were identified in office and
administrative support occupations including customer service representatives, office clerks, secretaries
and administrative assistants and bookkeeping and accounting clerks.
Results from Business Response Survey
Between July and September of 2020, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics conducted a national survey of
businesses to better understand how they were impacted by the pandemic. About 27 percent of
businesses in Maine reported that they increased telework during the pandemic. These businesses
accounted for 263,000 jobs in Maine. (Businesses that increased telework did not necessarily offer
telework arrangements to all of their employees.). The percentage of businesses that increased telework
was similar, but slightly below the national average of 31 percent. An additional 17 percent of
businesses reported having some telework arrangements already in place before the pandemic. The
majority of Maine businesses, 57 percent, reported having no telework arrangements either before or
during the pandemic.
Results from Household Pulse Survey
The U.S. Census Bureau implemented a new experimental pulse survey to quickly collect information
about the impact of the pandemic on households. Data collected between February 17 and March 1,
2021 shows that 34 percent of households in Maine reported at least one adult that had substituted
some or all of their in-person work for telework. This rate was similar to the national average of 36
percent. This data points to a dramatic change in work environments that persists one year into the
pandemic, with one-third of households with an adult working in a different work location, usually their
home.
Workers with higher levels of educational attainment were substantially more likely to substitute
telework for in person work. Half of all workers with a Bachelor’s degree or higher reported teleworking. 5
Less than 15 percent of workers with a high school diploma, GED or lower level of educational
attainment reported teleworking.
Workers between the ages of 40-54 were the most likely to telework and those age 65 and above were the least likely.
All CWRI publications and presentations can be found here. Future topics include: the job impact by age,
job impact by educational attainment, reemployment and the challenge the pandemic has made for
data collection and estimation.
