Home office growth hits temporary plateau

Office World News, Sep 1998

GRAND RAPIDS, MI-Slightly more than 31 percent of Americans surveyed in the spring 1998 HOME OFFICE TRENDST study reported having an office in their homes. That percentage is roughly consistent with the findings from the fall 1996 survey, indicating that the growth in home offices may have reached a plateau, at least temporarily.

The brisk rise in home offices appears to have ebbed in 1996. While the fall '96 survey found that nearly 31 percent of Americans had home offices, an earlier study conducted in the spring estimated the figure at just 24 percent.

"If the Baby Boomers haven't opened a home office by now, they probably never will," said Richard Kennedy, executive vice president of Wirthlin Worldwide, an international market research company. "The U.S. Census Bureau projected that the overall growth in new households would be relatively flat over the next ten years, so it stands to reason that the growth in home offices would be leveling off, too."

Demographic, economic and lifestyle trends may soon conspire to help the growth of home offices resume again. For now, though, the market is holding steady at about one-third of U.S. households-and that alone represents a huge opportunity.

What's more, the market still holds plenty of promise for certain manufacturers serving home office users. For instance, HOME OFFICE TRENDS found there's very little brand recognition for furniture used in home offices. "Even though the growth in home offices appears to have slowed, the market still looks wide open, at least from a furniture perspective," Kennedy said. "Any manufacturer that takes an aggressive marketing approach to exploit this absence of brand recognition could make significant inroads."

Overview of findings

The apparent slowdown in the growth of home offices was among the findings in the spring 1998 installment of HOME OFFICE TRENDS. The study is based on telephone interviews with a representative sample of more than 11,000 U.S. households.

Following are some of the other findings:

Demographic indicators: Education and income are the most important clues to who is likely to have a home office. HOME OFFICE TRENDS found that 51 percent of college graduates have home offices, as do an identical percentage of respondents with household incomes greater than $40,000.

How home offices are used: Nearly one-half of home offices are used almost exclusively for conducting personal business like paying bills and computing. In contrast. just 17 percent of home offices are used almost exclusively for operating a home-based business.

Women as the primary user:

HOME OFFICE TRENDS is peppered with subtle suggestions that women are becoming bigger players in the home office market. Women are the primary user of 41 percent of home offices, up from 36 percent in the spring 1996 study. Meanwhile, men are the primary user of 48 percent of home offices, down from 54 percent in 1996.

Home offices in the West: Westerners seem to take home offices more seriously than the rest of the country. Home offices are found in 41 percent of Western households, far more than any other region. Western households are also more likely to have multiple home offices, to use their office for a business and to devote a room exclusively to office use.

Multiple home offices: Of those households with a home office, about 12 percent have two or more, nearly double the percentage reported in 1996.

Time spent in home offices Households with home offices spend an average of 14.5 hours per week working in them, up from 12.9 hours in the spring '96 study. Full-time use is increasing somewhat-16 percent of households spend at least 30 hours per week in their home office, compared with 12 percent in 1996. On the other hand, 44 percent of home offices are used less than ten hours pe week.

Founded in 1969, Wirthlin Worldwide is an opinion research and strategic consulting firm based in McLean, VA. For more information, call (616) 954-0200.