Can Older Workers Work from Home?

The brief’s key findings are:

• As the economy reopens, older workers – who are more at risk from COVID-19 – may be the last to return to work.
• The analysis, building on recent research, explores how many of these older workers can work from home.
• Perhaps surprisingly, older workers are as well situated as younger workers in terms of having “work from home” jobs.
• However, only about 45 percent of all older workers are in such jobs, and they tend to be those with higher earnings and more education.
• As a result, many of the most vulnerable older workers will face either the health risk of returning to work too early or the economic risk of running out of money.