Raleigh among cities with most remote workers, data shows

Tuesday started like most days – logging online to talk with someone. In this case, it's Kyle Ricketts. He’s in Holly Springs.

WRAL News pleasantries with Ricketts before asking him some questions. Ricketts is used to these interactions. He works for a health care software company and being miles or even timezones away from people he is working with is normal for him because he works remotely.

"With these tech companies, they hire the best people, regardless of where they are," Ricketts said.

Ricketts finds there are many perks, primarily, that there's no commute.

"You can just be flexible," he said. "The fact that you get that time back in your day is a big plus."

However, there are some downsides.

"When you are interacting face-to-face with someone, it's easier to establish those bonds and just have like that small-talk conversation," he said.

Beyond personal impacts like those, there are economic impacts to cities that have a large share of remote workers. It’s why many downtown offices have high vacancy rates.

A 2022 Federal Reserve study reveals remote work is a key contributing factor to rising housing prices. This study notes that the type of work primarily completed in an area matters. For instance, tech jobs like what Ricketts does, can be completed nearly from anywhere. According to the American Community Survey data, the top five cities with the largest share of people working from home are all tech hubs. They include Boulder (32%), Austin (28%), San Francisco (27%), Raleigh (26.1%) and Seattle (25.4%).

Those are all higher than the national average which sits at 15.2%.

Ricketts went remote in 2020, allowing him to choose where he wanted to live. He relocated from Rochester, New York, to the Triangle and says moving forward, being remote will likely be the primary way he’d like to work.

"Despite the social upside that you can have from being near coworkers with the ability to do ad hoc, face-to-face problem solving, I feel like the struggles kind of outweigh any benefits," Ricketts said.

The census data also shows that the share of people who work remotely has tripled, both nationwide and in Raleigh, since before the pandemic. Charlotte, Durham-Chapel Hill, Wilmington and Asheville also have remote worker rates that are higher than the national average.