Remote work fuelled US productivity growth during pandemic, study says

American study finds increase in productivity for service-based businesses due to the rise of remote work during Covid-19. — Photo by Chris Montgomery on Unsplash

US economic productivity during the pandemic was driven entirely by firms with remote work capacity, according to a new study co-authored by Robert Gordon of Northwestern University.

Productivity in work-from-home services businesses, which includes information and finance, grew 3.3% between the beginning of 2020 and early 2022. Meantime, growth in the goods sector, in jobs like construction and mining, was unchanged and services industries that required in-person contact contracted by 2.6%, according to a working paper by Gordon and Princeton University’s Hassan Sayed.