Job-seekers apply during a job fair with Volkswagen staffing contractor Aerotek held at the Volkswagen Manufacturing Plant on Friday, Dec. 16, 2016, in Chattanooga, Tenn. Aerotek is hiring to fill production slots for manufacturing Volkswagen’s new Atlas SUV.At-home workers
* 3.7 million – Number of workers who work from home at least half the time* 2.8 – Percent of all workers who are now telecommuters* 50 – Percent of U.S. work that is capabitible with at least partial telework* $700 billion – Projected savings in travel, office, energy and other expenses, plus increased productivity, if all work that could be done by telecommute was done at workers’ homesSource: U.S. Bureau of Census, Global Workplace Analytics
Job market improves
Since the worst of the Great Recession in metropolitan Chattanooga:* The unemployment rate has declined from 10 percent in March 2009 to around 5 percent by the end of 2016* More than 18,000 net new jobs have been added since January 2010. In the past year, employment grew nearly 3.8 percent in Chattanooga, nearly twice the U.S. rate
When Aimee Cortese had her second baby nearly four years ago, she was eager to leave Los Angeles and return to her hometown and family in Austin, Texas. But she didn’t want to give up her job with the Chattanooga-based Unum Group.
So like a growing number of workers, Cortese took her job home with her, moving to Texas three years ago where she continues to work as a senior employee relations consultant out of an office in her home.
“It’s definitely been a blessing and a great experience for me to be closer to my family and to have the flexibility of working from my home,” she says.