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Best state for remote working revealed in new survey
A new study from WalletHub revealed the top American States for working from home based on 12 unique criteria ranging from safety to access to electricity.
Working from home hit new heights of popularity following the infamous Covid-19 pandemic. Though the world has somewhat returned to the norm, hybrid work environments are still sought after on both dedicated and general job sites.
Which States are best for remote working?
The team over at WalletHub, who previously revealed the best and worst states to be a woman in, dug into the world of remote working in a new 2024 study. By assigning numerical values to a set of criteria, they were able to rank each of the States by how effective remote working is.
Coming out victorious with the top spot was the great State of New Jersey with a total score of 64.76. The state also came in second place in the work environment and 13th place in the living environment.
New Jersey ranked particularly well for both the price and speed of the internet, which is obviously essential while working from home. The Garden State also ranked well for online safety.
Despite being ranked number one for remote working, people in New Jersey don’t seem to be taking full advantage of the job type. Currently, only 13% of the population are engaged with remote work compared with the 96% that work in jobs capable of remote options.
New Jersey was followed by similarly successful States like Utah, Delaware, Maryland, the District of Columbia, Connecticut, Washington, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, and North Carolina.
On the opposite end of the scale was Alaska with an overall rating of 34.49. Alaska was marginally beaten by Montana, Arkansas, Wyoming, South Dakota, Oklahoma, and Mississippi.
Is remote working still the future?
Following the study, experts said that the figures illustrated just how prevalent remote working is. They further argued that companies should be investing more into the idea of remote working, or at the very least, a hybrid scheme.
“Companies should invest more of their resources and establish functional, thoughtfully designed hybrid work arrangements. These offer the best of both. They offer most of the advantages of working from home without the drawbacks,” said Professor Leslie DeChurch. “Something else we (hopefully) learned from the global pandemic is how very essential social connection is to well-being. We are social beings and there are benefits to both employer and employee of having some work take place together in person: learning, networking, motivation, and team building to name a few.”
“What companies realized was not only were many employees productive when working from home, but that many employees were even more productive when working from home due to the removal of many contextual stressors such as commuting, needing to leave work due to sick children, etc,” added associate Professor Katrina A. Burch.
