Greg Reilly


Remote working soars in Connecticut, exceeding the national average. It’s ‘a trend that is going to be with us,’ an expert says.

The number of Connecticut residents primarily working from home nearly quadrupled in 2021 compared with two years earlier, new U.S. Census figures show, some of the most compelling evidence yet about how the pandemic has reshaped the state’s employment landscape.

In 2019, 5.6% of employees in Connecticut, or 1 in 18, worked from home, but that climbed to 19.5%, or 1 in 5 in 2021, as employers adapted to COVID-19 distancing precautions to keep running their organizations, according to an analysis of Census data released by the Connecticut Data Collaborative.

In Hartford County, the percentages were even higher, at 20.5% in 2021 compared with 4.8% in 2019.

The percentage of employees working remotely in Connecticut in 2021, exceeded by nearly two percentage points the 17.9% registered nationally, according to CTData, a public-private partnership that advocates the use of data to drive policy and improve programs and services.

“While we know rates increased during the initial year of the pandemic, what is striking is that well into the pandemic rates of working from home have persisted, at levels three times as high as the pandemic,” Michelle Riordan-Nold, CTData’s executive director, said.

“To me, it’s indicative of a trend that is going to be with us,” Riordan-Nold said.

Connecticut also was in the top tier of states with at-home workforces in 2021, coming in behind Washington (24.2%), Maryland (24%), Colorado (23.7%) and Massachusetts (23.7%), according to CTData.

CTData’s analysis was based on the U.S. Census American Community Survey, which are one-year estimates released by the Census Bureau. The sample size for the ACS survey was 19,518 in 2021, compared with 20,291 in 2019. The survey was not conducted in 2020 because of the pandemic.

The Census survey for 2021 also marked the highest number and percentage of people working from home recorded — both nationally and in Connecticut — since the community survey began in 2005.

Greg Reilly, a professor of management and a department head at the UConn School of Business in Storrs, said it was clear remote working, to some degree, will remain part of the employment culture even after the pandemic wanes. But he cautioned the survey was taken while a broad-cross section employers had not called back most workers back to the office and so the percentages could come back down a bit.

Nevertheless, Reilly said the pandemic demonstrated some jobs are particularly well-suited for remote working. Certain jobs in all pay categories — ranging from information technology to customer service may evolve such that people who choose those jobs will take into major consideration the flexibility of working from home, Reilly said.

There are costs to a workplace with a remote component, and the lost interaction, especially that is by chance, Reilly said.

“It may be less the ‘hard to connect,’” Reilly said. “The more important, powerful negative is the serendipity that is gone when you are not in the office. You do start conversations that you don’t intend and those conversations can lead to a variety of positive, problem-solving outcomes.”

Reilly also noted that trust is built by a string of often chance, in-person conversations.

CTData also found other striking shifts in working patterns in Connecticut.

As would be expected, the percentage of workers commuting to work — by car, truck or van — dropped to 74% in 2021, compared with 84% two years earlier. The percentage taking public transportation was cut in half, to 2.5% from 4.5%.

Kenneth R. Gosselin can be reached at kgosselin@courant.com.

©2022 Hartford Courant. Visit courant.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Source: https://www.courant.com/business/hc-biz-working-remotely-census-20221012-ygtmhsehvbbqzo2s7ufnki7nre-story.html


Management/Entrepreneurship Faculty Among Nation’s Top 10 Scholars

"Woman reading newspaper, canon 1Ds mark III"
(istockphoto.com)

Professors in the Management & Entrepreneurship Department are ranked among the Top 10 in the world for research productivity and high-quality scholarship.Continue Reading


Newly Re-Named ‘Department of Management and Entrepreneurship’ Reflects Growing Excitement About Innovation

Student Jack Tarca, pictured above, was able to accelerate the growth of his company through UConn's entrepreneurial support. (Contributed photo)
Student Jack Tarca, pictured above, was able to accelerate the growth of his company through UConn’s entrepreneurial support. (Contributed photo)

Student Jack Tarca may never have created his business, Find the Good Brand clothing company, if it weren’t for the entrepreneurship guidance he received at UConn.

“UConn gave me the confidence to start my own venture and build my clothing brand into a meaningful and impactful business,” said Tarca, a senior majoring in management. “The curriculum has allowed me to see a sustainable future with my business, allowing me to pursue this as a career.”Continue Reading


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The recently created, student-run Hillside Venture Capital investment team has selected its first company to support–an educational-technology startup that strives to enhance social and emotional learning in children through a video-game app.Continue Reading


UConn Management Professors Among Most Prolific, Respected Researchers in Nation

Management faculty, including professor John Mathieu (above), are being recognized for their expertise and cutting edge research. (Nathan Oldham / UConn School of Business)
Management faculty, including professor John Mathieu (above), are being recognized for their expertise and cutting edge research. (Nathan Oldham / UConn School of Business)

The management faculty at the School of Business are among the most prolific and highly regarded in the nation, according to the latest rankings.Continue Reading



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Greg Reilly, the head of the management department, said Rawley will be a tremendous asset to the school.Continue Reading


UConn MBA Program Ranked Among Public Top 20

Text: UConn MBA Ranked TOP 20 Public MBA - Group of MBA Students, studying.
(Nathan Oldham / UConn School of Business)

The Financial Times released its highly regarded 2020 MBA rankings today and the UConn MBA program was among the Top 20 public universities for its academic rigor.

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UConn’s MS Degree in Human Resources Draws Diverse Specialists


As academic director for UConn’s Graduate Programs in Human Resources, I had the pleasure of welcoming 39 new master’s students to campus earlier this fall. We are excited to have a student cohort with a wide range of prior experience and knowledge coming into the program, because we believe such diversity enriches the classroom and online discussions with varied perspectives, beliefs and questions. Continue Reading