McLean County had a huge shift to work-from-home employment during the pandemic — in fact, a bigger percentage change than in all but two other counties in Illinois.
According to a new study out by the Institute of Government and Public Affairs at the University of Illinois at Chicago, McLean County work-from-home numbers grew from about 5% of workers to about 25% of the workforce between 2019 and 2021. That proportion is behind only Cook and DuPage counties in the state. Some high-population areas had more than half the workforce at home during the height of the pandemic.
Alea Wilbur-Mujtaba co-authored the study with Francis Choi, Xioayan Hu, and David Merriman. Merriman is the interim director of the institute. Choi, Hu, and Wilbur-Mujtaba are Ph.D. candidates.
Generally, the more populated areas in the state had bigger shifts to online work.
“Livingston, Ford, Iroquois, Vermilion, Jo Daviess, Carroll, Whiteside, and Lee counties and the entire south and southeast section of Illinois experienced less than 2% of their workers shifting to remote work,” said the study.
The study noted McLean County numbers were swayed by the high proportion of the workforce in the finance and insurance sectors. State Farm's headquarters provides 14,000-15,000 jobs in the community. She said other factors mattered too.
"Could your internet handle your job? And then If there were multiple people working from home or if you had kids doing school from home, if it couldn't support doing multiple demanding things at the same time, odds are one of the people or one of the parents or someone had to go somewhere else for internet that could handle it better," said Wilbur-Mujtaba.
In that regard, McLean County started out the pandemic in better shape than many counties in Illinois. The study showed a rise in access to high-speed internet in McLean County in the study period from roughly 86% to 88%. Other counties like Peoria, Tazewell, and DeKalb had more growth in internet access but started at a much lower base. McLean County ranks highly statewide for internet access too.
Some insurance sector analysts say a workforce shortage in the industry is forcing insurance companies like State Farm and Country to be more willing to offer hybrid positions than in some other job classes that technically COULD go remote. Wilbur-Mujtaba says other sectors could be that way too as the baby boom retirement goes onward.
"If there is a labor shortage in a specific field, workers have a lot more power now to bargain and to ask for work-from-home capabilities," said Wilbur-Mujtaba.
The study also points out an equity issue. The benefits of work-from-home include more flexibility, less commuting, multi-tasking with things like laundry, easier childcare coordination, and less stress in general. People who have jobs that won't let them work from home don't get those benefits. And those jobs tend to have lower pay than those who can work from home.
"People who might have more resources already, are probably the ones who benefit the most from being able to work from home," said Wilbur Mujtaba.
There's still a lot of room for change. The jobs data showed about 40% of McLean County jobs could be done from home, instead of the 25% that did so, as measured by the study. That 40% is among the highest rates of potential work-from-home in the state, along with Champaign, DuPage, and Sangamon counties.
Wilbur-Mujtaba said the 2022 American Community Survey data from the U.S. Census Bureau had yet to come out when the paper was written, so the return to office and continued hybrid employment rates will be interesting to see. She said she looks forward to additional analysis to find out what the new normal will be.
If work-from-home numbers continue to rise, she said there are policy implications for governments in such areas as sales tax collection and motor fuel tax money to fund road construction and repair, if people do not travel as much over time.
