These NC cities are among the best in the nation for working from home, report says
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North Carolina is home to three of the best places for working from home, a new report finds.
Raleigh, Durham and Charlotte earned top spots on a nationwide list of cities where people have the flexibility to do their jobs away from the office, according to results released Thursday from SmartAsset.
“Even prior to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, more than 7% of all three cities’ workforces worked remotely,” the personal finance website said in its findings.
To come up with the findings for 2021, SmartAsset said it studied conditions in the “100 largest U.S. cities.” Using data from the federal government, analysts weighed each location’s share of remote workers, cost of living, housing sizes and other economic factors.
Raleigh ranked No. 2 nationwide, the best of any North Carolina city.
“A high proportion of the workforce in Raleigh, North Carolina worked from home prior to the COVID-19 pandemic,” SmartAsset said in its report. “In total, 10.5% of the workforce worked remotely in 2019 – the fourth-highest rate for this metric in our study.”
Raleigh also had among the highest portions of employees who could do remote work and among the lowest poverty and unemployment rates, results show.
Durham and Charlotte were a bit further down on the list, landing No. 6 and 7 spots, respectively.
SmartAsset said Durham fell short for its poverty rate but scored high marks in all other categories. It also got nods for housing costs making up about 36% of income and for most homes having at least two bedrooms.
“Taking into account recent changes during COVID-19, we estimate that an additional roughly 25% of the workforce could have telework flexibility,” SmartAsset said.
Charlotte, leading up to the pandemic, had the second-highest increase in the portion of residents doing remote work of any U.S. city, according to the study.
It’s not the first time North Carolina was recognized as a top place for working outside the office.
In April, the website WalletHub gave the state a No. 9 ranking in a study that weighed internet access and jobs that allow for remote work, McClatchy News reported.
Companies in North Carolina and other states are allowing their employees to work from home to help stop the spread of COVID-19. While some people have been able to work remotely during coronavirus-related shutdowns, others lost their jobs or experienced pay cuts.
Overall, SmartAsset said the top place for work was Scottsdale, Arizona, just outside of Phoenix. Rounding out the top five on the list were Plano, Texas, at No. 3; Gilbert, Arizona, at No. 4 and St. Petersburg, Florida, at No. 5.
