Working from home was on the rise even before the Covid-19 outbreak drove businesses to close their doors. Telecommuting is here to stay for millions of workers, over a year after the first coronavirus lockdowns.

According to a fourth-quarter 2020 poll by Upwork, a job marketplace for remote employees and freelancers, nearly 57 percent of Americans work from home at least part-time, with 42 percent working remotely full-time.

According to Upwork, 36.2 million Americans will be entirely remote by 2025, roughly double the pre-pandemic rate.

Both employees and employers profit from working from home. Telecommuting saves employers and employees time and money, reduces stress, increases productivity, reduces exposure to office colds and flus, and helps the environment by reducing the number of commuters, according to studies conducted by Global Workplace Analytics, a San Diego-based research and consulting firm.

According to FlexJobs, a remote job marketplace, the fastest-growing career areas for remote jobs are computers and IT, medical and health, project management, sales, accounting and finance, customer service, and marketing.

In a statement, Sara Sutton, founder and CEO of FlexJobs, said, "The coronavirus pandemic has irreversibly altered the workplace and how, when, and where people work." "The discovery that remote work is smart, strategic, and sustainable for organizations to embrace has forever changed business models, enhancing not only the bottom line but also giving benefits to the broader workforce."

Bankrate compiled a list of 20 real work-at-home opportunities. Unless otherwise specified, pay and job-growth data comes from the 2019 edition of the Occupational Outlook Handbook from the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports median wages rather than average salaries. With half of the jobs paying less and half paying more, the median wage lies in the middle of the data set. The BLS forecasts job growth from 2019 to 2029.

Sign up now to get the most out of Books2Read

Discover something great at Books2Read.

Thanks for signing up for Books2Read notifications!