Who Is the Typical Remote Worker in America’s Northeast Region? Insights into Demographics, Income, Education & More

Photo of Maria Zidaru Maria Zidaru
remote workers

Remote work — a trend that has been rapidly accelerated by recent events — has become a significant factor in employees’ decision-making processes, and this shift has highlighted the importance of flexibility and adaptability in the modern workforce. For this reason, a comprehensive understanding of remote work dynamics is necessary to facilitate productivity and maintain a healthy work/life balance in this new landscape.

We have previously delved into the national profile of the typical remote worker, which you can find here. Now, we shift our focus to a regional perspective, which allows us to glean more precise insights from our data and offer a clearer understanding of the evolving workforce landscape. While we’ll discuss the Northeast region, you can also find more about the Western and Southern profiles.

Explore Northeastern remote workers’ demographics, income, education, and industries with our interactive visual, where you can get insights into the top metro areas in the region and the exact characteristics of remote workers in each metro.

Geographical Distribution, Gender Balance & Generational Diversity in the Northeast: Boston Takes Lead with Highest Percentage of Remote Workers

The Northeast ranked second in terms of the highest concentration of remote workers, who account for nearly 14% of the total workforce (behind only the West). This percentage comes as a natural result of the region’s tech-driven metropolitan areas, coupled with their emphasis on health care and higher education, all of which contribute to an ideal environment for a remote workforce.

Hover over the top Northeast metros or select your preferred metro from the drop-down menu below to explore detailed insights into the local profile of remote workers.

Percentage Distribution of Remote Workers

Closely aligning with the national average, several metros within the region exhibited noteworthy figures for their remote workers. Specifically, Portland, ME led with more than 18% of remote workers, closely followed by Boston, MA and Harrisburg, PA with almost 18% and 17%, respectively. In contrast to other regions where variations were more pronounced, the lowest percentage of remote workers in the Northeast region was below 10% only in Scranton, Pennsylvania. Despite the uneven distribution of the remote workforce, these figures indicate a strong interest in telecommuting across the Northeast region.

Gender Distribution of Remote Workers

The Northeast region presented a relatively balanced gender breakdown with almost 48% of the remote workers being male and a little over 52% female (again, second only to the West). However, certain Northeast metros showed different variations. For instance, the Bridgeport, CT, metro claimed above 51% male remote workers, while almost 58% of the teleworkers in the Scranton, PA, metro were female. Meanwhile, Scranton’s metro area had the largest gender disparity, whereas the Boston, MA, metro recorded the most balanced distribution with a share of close to 51% female remote workers.

Generational Distribution of Remote Workers

In the Northeast, a little more than 38% of the remote workers were predominantly Millennials. In particular, this generation made up nearly half (45%) of the teleworkers’ population in Buffalo, NY, followed closely by the New York metro at almost 42%. Conversely, New Haven, CT, had the lowest percentage of Millennials at a little over 30%, as well as the highest proportion of Boomers at almost 24%, surpassing the regional standpoint of around 19%. What’s more, the Northeast led with the highest percentage of remote workers belonging to the Boomer and Silent generations with around 19% and 1%, respectively.

Within the region, Gen X represented almost 33% of remote workers and the Northeast showed little variation of this generation between its metros. To that end, the Bridgeport metro was topped with almost 37% of Gen X remote workers, followed closely by Worcester, MA. Interestingly, Buffalo, NY had the largest cohort of the Silent generation at approximately 2%. The Northeast also surpassed the national level for Generation Z, who made up almost 9% of its total remote workforce. It’s worth noting here that New Haven, CT, stood out with just above 14% of remote workers belonging to Gen Z, whereas Portland, ME had a lower proportion at almost 7%.

Education Level of America’s Western Remote Workforce: Almost 80% Are Highly Educated in Bridgeport and Boston

Similar to other regions, the majority of remote workers in the Northeast are highly educated. In fact, with 68% of them holding a bachelor’s degree, the region surpasses the national average of just a little over 61%. Here, the second-largest category (a bit more than 18%) of Northeastern remote workers consisted of professionals with some college or associate’s degree, while the third share comprised almost 11% of teleworkers holding a high school diploma. The region also boasted the smallest percentage of remote workers with less than a high school diploma (below 3%).

Likewise, the Bridgeport and Boston metros demonstrated a high level of educational attainment among their remote workforces with almost 80% and 79%, respectively, holding a bachelor’s degree. Similarly, the New York metro area also had a significant share of teleworkers in this educational category with a fraction over 73%. Given their education-driven communities and the presence of prestigious Ivy League institutes, it may not be surprising that a considerable number of teleworkers in these metros are highly educated.

Otherwise, two Pennsylvania metros also stood out: Allentown led in terms of remote workers with a college or associate’s degree at nearly 30%, while Harrisburg had the highest percentage of teleworkers who were high school graduates (almost 19%). Additionally, Lancaster, PA reported more than 7% of its remote force with less than a high school degree, followed by Syracuse, NY at around 4%. At the opposite end of the spectrum were New Haven, CT, and Scranton, PA with only about 1% of their remote workforces lacking a high school diploma.

Remote Work & Higher Earnings: Remote Workers Make $100,000+/Year in Bridgeport Metro

Leading in this category, Northeastern has more than half of its remote workforce reporting high incomes with almost 51% of teleworkers earning $75,000 or more yearly. Additionally, more than 6% of remote workers earned between $65,000 and $74,999 per year, while above 11% made between $50,000 to $64,999. For comparison, fewer than 7% of teleworkers in the Northeast earned less than $10,000 annually (a figure comparable to the West). It’s worth noting that these reduced wages may be affected by part-time employment.

Naturally, there is a correlation between the largest number of highly educated remote workers and the highest income levels. Accordingly, the three metros with the most significant proportions of highly educated remote workers also had the most elevated incomes. In this case, the Bridgeport metro stood out as the only one with a median income exceeding $100,000 ($102,000, to be precise). Following closely were the Boston and New York metros with median incomes of $95,000 and $85,000, respectively, for remote workers. On the other side of the range, Harrisburg and Buffalo had median incomes of $60,000, while the Scranton metro stood at a $55,850 median income for remote workers. Remarkably, the median income of teleworkers didn’t fall below the $55,000 mark in the Northeast region.

Remote Work Revolution: From Office Jobs to Manufacturing, Industries Embrace Versatility in Northeast America’s Workforce

While the number of industries offering remote work opportunities has increased throughout the years, office-based sectors still dominate with the highest percentage of teleworkers. Thus, within the region, the professional and scientific field led with more than 28% of the total remote workforce. Then, in metros like Boston, MA, the percentage was almost 34%, while in Rochester and Bridgeport, it was just above 33%.

Next, educational services and health care followed closely in second place, accounting for close to 20% of teleworkers. For this metric, metros like like New Haven, CT, and Harrisburg, PA were at the forefront with close to 29% and 23%, respectively, of remote workers. Likewise, Hartford had just around 23% of remote workers in the finance industry, surpassing the Northeastern share of a little over 14% in this sector.

Finally, the development of remote work is also reinforced by the percentages of teleworkers in the more “practical” industries. For example, Allentown, PA had a little more than 12% of its teleworkers in manufacturing, while Lancaster in Pennsylvania had nearly 5% of remote workers in construction and almost 4% in agriculture. The Portland, Maine, metro — which boasted close to 6% of teleworkers in the art field — also proves that there’s a diverse range of opportunities for remote workers.

Methodology

For the purposes of this article, we used data from the following public sources:

U.S. Census Bureau:

IPUMS USA: Steven Ruggles, Sarah Flood, Matthew Sobek, Daniel Backman, Annie Chen, Grace Cooper, Stephanie Richards, Renae Rogers and Megan Schouweiler. IPUMS USA: Version 14.0 [dataset]. Minneapolis, MN: IPUMS, 2023. https://doi.org/10.18128/D010.V14.0

  • Generational breakdown of remote workers (the generations were defined based on Pew Research Center classification) in 2022
  • Distribution of remote workers by education level in 2022
  • Yearly median income attributed to remote workers in 2022
  • The MSAs were defined by 2023 OMB delineations

*U.S. Census Bureau is the source of the underlying data.

Photo of Maria Zidaru Maria Zidaru
Photo of Maria Zidaru

Maria Zidaru

Maria Zidaru is a creative writer at CoworkingCafe and CoworkingMag, with degrees in Literature and Marketing. Her background in both accounting and publishing provides a diverse perspective to her writings. From arts to chess and real estate, Maria is enthusiastic about engaging in subjects that provide value to her readers.
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