San Antonio is worst-equipped big U.S. metro for working from home, new study finds
- Pexels / Tima Miroshnichenko
As it becomes clearer that widespread telecommuting is a long-term, or even permanent, effect of the COVID crisis, a new study found that San Antonio is the least-equipped major metro for working from home.
An analysis from online retailer Filterbuy.com placed the San Antonio-New Braunfels metro 53rd among large urban centers in being ready to work from home. Rally-Cary, N.C., a university town with a major research sector, ranked at the top of the list.
Part of the problem is that just 28.7% of San Antonio-area workers have remote-friendly jobs, below the national average of 30.7%. Chalk that one up to our economy’s heavy reliance on service-sector and hospitality jobs.
What’s more, the city lags behind most other big metros in households with a home or laptop computer, with broadband access and with at least one spare bedroom to use as a home office, according to the study.
Those factors aren’t so much symptoms of San Antonio’s lack of tech savvy, but more likely, the digital divide that accompanies the city’s long history of generational poverty. In 2018, 18.6% of residents in San Antonio lived in poverty, compared to 15.5% in Texas overall and 14.1% in the U.S. overall, according to the city’s Status of Poverty Report.
Stay on top of San Antonio news and views. Sign up for our Weekly Headlines Newsletter.
