Even with rising unemployment, the number of remote workers continues to climb according to the Dieringer Research Group Inc.

Demographically…

What does the average teleworker look like? Would you have guessed, 40-years-old and at least a college grad? Half of the teleworkers out there have a college degree, on top of that 25% have a post-graduate degree in addition to college. Teleworkers are mostly knowledge workers. The option to telework is increasingly offered to salaried employees (97%); but is few and far between for workers earning an hourly wage (11%).

“Home” is less Popular

“Home” still tops the list of locations that teleworking occurs, but “satellite center” and “hotels” are on the rise. Unfortunately, teleworking while “on vacation” is on the rise too – a practice that lowers the resiliency of workers, and leaves them tired and less productive when back from their (theoretical) vacation. For the first time “co-working office” was given as an option to where teleworking occurs, 12% of teleworkers confirmed that they use a co-working space.

Teleworking is a Reward

Employers see telework as a benefit to employees, and employees are in agreement viewing the ability to work remotely as a reward. Few companies employ large numbers of full-time remote workers, with the biggest exception being the telemarketing industry. 75 percent of employers admit that these privileges have a positive effect on employee engagement, morale, retention and motivation.

A Virtual Office is really just an extension of the Remote Working model. The ability to work from a laptop anywhere, but still have all your calls answered by a professional secretary, and have all your mail picked up and forwarded makes remote working easy and inexpensive.