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Arlington Ranks Among Top Cities for Working from Home

Arlington ranks No. 21 on a new 2021 list of top places for working from home.

The list, compiled by the website SmartAsset, takes into account factors like “estimated percentage of the workforce who can work from home,” “percentage of the workforce who worked from home in 2019,” and “housing costs as a percentage of earnings.”

Arlington was No. 1 on the list in terms of ability to work from home — 40.4% of the workforce — but ranked lower as a result of our high housing costs. Also, only 6.1% of workers worked from home pre-pandemic.

A previous set of rankings explained by Arlington’s work-from-home ability is so high.

“A large percentage of the workforce in Arlington, Virginia is involved in two white-collar occupations: management, business & financial operations and professional & related job,” SmartAsset wrote. “According to [Bureau of Labor Statistics] data, 60% of management, business & financial operations workers and more than 42% of all professional & related workers can work from home, so many Arlington workers have that ability.”

SmartAsset noted that remote work is likely here to stay for many workers.

“In the late spring of 2020, about half of American workers were working from home, according to two surveys conducted by the National Bureau of Economic Research,” the company wrote. “Many researchers believe that increased work flexibility and work-from-home opportunities may continue even after the pandemic is over.”