Newly released data from the Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute shows work-from-home rates in the Beehive State are declining.
After nearly tripling between 2019 and 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the report shows the number of Utahns working from home began to decline in 2022. According to the report, this follows national trends.
In 2024, 15.7% of Utahns worked from home, down from 20% in 2021.
Lead author Heidi Prior said that means about 50,000 Utahns who were working from home have returned to the office.
“But even with that happening, we still see really elevated rates of working from home in the state compared to what was happening in 2019,” she said. “We have twice as many home-based workers today as we had in 2019.”
Summit County had the second-highest work-from-home rate between 2020 and 2024, with around 20% of residents working from home. Piute and Wayne counties came in first and third, respectively.
Other rural counties followed. Wasatch, Kane and Rich counties had an 18% to 19.9% work-from-home rate, which is similar to counties along the Wasatch Front.
“Most of the counties that have higher work-from-home rates are near an urban area. Counties that are incredibly rural tend to have lower work-from-home rates,” Prior said. “Summit and Wasatch counties, that fits.”
Prior said Summit County’s high home-based workforce may be due in part to having a higher percentage of residents with bachelor’s degrees. Over 23% of workers with bachelor’s degrees worked from home.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, almost 60% of people 25 and older in Summit County had a bachelor’s degree or more education between 2020 and 2024. That’s compared to 51% in Wasatch County, 39% in Salt Lake County and 13% in Piute County.
Having high earners may also be a factor. Almost 23% of Utah workers earning $75,000 or more annually worked from home in 2024, and Summit County had a median income of $138,000 from 2020 to 2024. Wasatch County had a median income of almost $118,000; Salt Lake and Piute counties sat at $97,500 and $48,000, respectively.
Prior said the report also shows rates vary widely by occupation. Health care, production, construction and maintenance jobs don’t have home-based options. Fewer than one in 10 government employees now work from home, compared to one in three in 2021.
Credit authorizers, loan clerks and private investigators, on the other hand, have the highest work-from-home rates.
“A lot of jobs that have to do with computers or math have had work-from-home rates go up,” Prior said. “Positions where the bulk of someone's work are done, you know, like on a screen and on the phone have stuck with working from home.”
Prior said demographics also informed work-from-home trends. Between 2021 and 2024, the rate of noncitizens working from home was cut in half, going down to 7%.
In contrast, Utahns who were citizens at birth worked from home more than twice as much, with 16% having home-based jobs.
“The interesting thing is that non-citizens saw their work-from-home rate drop a lot, but people who are naturalized citizens who became citizens later in life did not experience that,” Prior said. “Something about having that piece of legal status does seem to make a difference.”
Non-Hispanic white and asian workers had higher work-from-home rates compared to other racial and ethnic groups, with over 15% based at home.
