Fear of the coronavirus is driving more people to work from home. Here are the best US cities for remote workers.

0 0 Wednesday, February 5, 2020 Edit this post

millennial stressed

About 24% of all working Americans work remotely at least part of the time, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Fear over illnesses like the coronavirus has led to a surge of employees working from home in countries like China, Bloomberg reported.
But there are some cities where it makes more economic sense to work remotely. New data from work-focused blog Overheard on Conference Calls broke down the best US cities to work remotely based on the cost of living, commute-time savings, Wi-Fi speed, coffee shops, and coworking spaces.
Salt Lake City in Utah and Kansas City in Missouri topped the list for the best places to work from home.
Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Employees may be trading in conference rooms and cubicles for coworking spaces and coffee shops as more companies move to offer flexible and remote work options.

About 24% of all working Americans work from home at least part of the time, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

But as fear spreads over the coronavirus and other illnesses like the flu, that percentage may increase. In China, for example, where the coronavirus originated, working remotely has become a necessity for many employees, Bloomberg reported. There have been 11 confirmed cases of the virus in the US.

Some managers are concerned the surge in the number of employees working outside of the office could lower productivity, but the opposite actually might be true.

A recent study from Owl Labs found that 22% of full-time remote workers reported being happier in their jobs than employees who never work remotely. Remote workers also had better work-life balance, and were more productive and less stressed, the study found.

But there are some US cities where it makes more economic sense to work remotely. The work-focused blog Overheard on Conference Calls broke down the best US cities to work remotely based on the cost of living, commute time savings, Wi-Fi speed, number of coffee shops, and number of coworking spaces.

Overheard on Conference Calls gave each city a living and work factors rank. The living factors rank is a weighted score of cost of living and average commute time. Work factors is based on coworking spaces and coffee shops per capita, and average Wi-Fi speed. The overall rank, scored from 1 to 50, is a sum of both categories that is scored and weighted with lower numbers indicating the city was more ideal for remote workers.

Here are the 15 best cities for remote work, based on this data.