The number of Americans who telecommute occasionally rose 39 percent over the last two years according to a study released this week. Rising fuel prices in 2008, improving technologies for communications and growing concerns for work-life balance among the newest generation of employees no doubt contributed to this dramatic increase. Today, an estimated 17.2 million Americans work from home or some other remote location at least one day a month.

Data in WorldatWork’s TELEWORK TRENDLINES 2009 report also suggests, however, that the New Pioneers trend of working full time from a remote location may be stalling out. According to the report, the number of  people who telecommute on contract, are self-employed or are business owners has remained essentially flat for four years, increasing from 16.2 to 16.6 million. In 2006, 77 percent of the nation’s 28.7 million employed telecommuters worked out of the office at least one day a week. In 2008, that percentage fell to 72 percent. Meanwhile, those who telecommuted “almost every day” fell from 51 percent of all telecommuters to 40 percent. The absolute number of these full-time remote workers dropped from 14.7 million in 2006 to 13.5 million in 2008.

If the number of hardcore telecommuters is on the wane, other changes suggest that telecommuting is becoming a more serious and less social activity, at least within the context of the local community. When asked where they telecommuted from, respondents offered answers that were somewhat different from two years ago. The number of those who worked from home (as opposed to an airplane, hotel, car etc.) rose from 76 percent to 87 percent. Working from a customer or client’s place of business also rose from 28 percent to 41 percent. More people also acknowledged telecommuting while on vacation (up from 18 percent to 23 percent).

One of the most interesting patterns seems to be a decline in telecommuting from what some sociologists and planners call “third places” like cafes, libraries and parks. The percentage of telecommuters who worked from cafes or restaurants fell from 31 percent to 23 percent. Working in libraries declined from 16 percent to 10 percent. Meanwhile, beaming in from a park or some other outdoor location dropped from 19 percent to 14 percent. For those who champion third places as important sites for the development of social capital in communities, this may be a disappointing trend.

The profile of changes taking place in telecommuting also has some interesting gender characteristics. Without question, and despite employer exhortations to the contrary, some parents, and especially women, have chosen telecommuting as a way to be closer to the needs of their children. Two years ago, WorldatWork reported that employed telecommuters were nearly equally divided between men and women, with men accounting for 53 percent of the total and women 47 percent. In 2008, however, the percentage of women dropped to 39 percent while the percentage of men rose to 61 percent. Does this shift suggest that women, who may have tried telecommuting to achieve a better work-home balance, are less interested in this option?

Other changes in the profile of telecommuters suggest that telecommuting is an option increasingly available to people without a college education. Since 2006, the number of telecommuters with a high school degree or less has risen from 18 to 23 percent.  However, the number of telecommuters in the moderate income bracket (under $75,000 a year) has declined from 46 to 42 percent since 2006.

Finally, given the timing of the survey in the weeks immediately following the election and in the middle of the growing economic crisis, the responses seem to have captured a shift in attitudes. With retirement portfolios shrinking and growing fears of layoffs, many people preferred job security and income to the quality of life improvements offered by telecommuting. While more than half of all the respondents said they were “interested” or “very interested” in telecommuting, 61 percent said they would not be willing to take a cut in pay in exchange for the ability to telecommute two days per week.

Overall, the TELEWORK TRENDLINES 2009  report suggests that more workers and their supervisors are becoming accustomed to the idea of occasional telecommuting. Althought it seems likely that this growth will eventually lead more people to become full-time remote workers, this change is taking place slowly right now. It remains to be seen whether the current economic crisis will accelerate or slow the trend in the near future.

TELEWORK TRENDLINES 2009 was published by the Telework Advisory Group of WorldatWork, a 53-year old association of human resource professionals. The survey, conducted in November and early December, included more than 1,000 adults from throughout the United States. For a copy of the report, visit http://www.workingfromanywhere.org/index.html