Top Occupations With the Fewest Fully Remote Workers

Unsurprisingly, building and grounds cleaning and maintenance occupations rank fourth among the professions with the lowest percentages of employees working fully remotely. An analysis of U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics from October 2024 by digital mailbox provider iPostal1 found that building and grounds cleaning and maintenance professionals have 1.1% of the 5,597,000 employees working fully remotely, which equates to 60,000 people. The data also revealed that 150,000 employees in this field partially work from home. 

iPostal1 created a ranking based on the occupations with the highest and lowest percentages of employees working fully remotely. 

Overall, food preparations and serving related occupations have the lowest percentage of fully remote workers, with just 0.4% working from home. Of the total 7,702,000 people with this occupation, 27,000 work remotely and 80,000 work remotely and in-person. 

Construction and extraction occupations are second, with just 0.6% of employees working from home. With 8,431,000 employees in this occupation, 54,000 work fully out of office and 198,000 work some of their hours at home. 

Transportation and material moving occupations have the third lowest rate of remote workers, with just 0.9% (107,000) of its 11,734,000 employees working all their hours remotely, and 117,000 working some hours remotely.

In total, 17,338,000 full-time employees in the U.S. work remotely, 19,893,000 work partially remotely, and 119,418,000 employees do not work from home at all.