Telecommuters Growing More Plentiful

The number of telecommuters is approaching the number of self-employed Americans who work out of their homes, a survey by a public relations agency found.

Creamer Dickson Basford, whose California operations are based in Irvine, said 40% of at-home workers are employed by someone other than themselves.

Through a research and consulting subsidiary, Creamer conducted telephone interviews with 500 adults nationwide. It said the margin of error in its study was 6 percentage points.

The survey found the typical home worker, whether self-employed or not, was more likely to be a man than a woman (55% to 45%).

Not surprisingly, the at-home workers were college-educated (78%) and often employed in professional, managerial or administrative positions (42%). They also tended to be youthful, with 30% of those surveyed in the 25-to-34 age bracket.

As individuals, the at-home workers generally made no more money than their office colleagues. But their total household incomes tended to be higher. Indeed, 17% of at-home workers had household incomes exceeding $75,000, compared with 11% of office workers.

E. Scott Reckard covers workplace issues for The Times. He can be reached at (714) 966-7407 and at scott.reckard@latimes.com