NEWS for North Dakotans
Agriculture Communication, North Dakota State
University
7 Morrill Hall, Fargo, ND 58105-5665
July 2, 1998
The number of North Dakotans who work at home dropped from about 62,000 in 1960 to about 24,000 in 1990, according to a new "Population Bulletin" from the State Data Center at North Dakota State University.
Mainly this drop reflects a decline in the number of family farmers, said Richard Rathge, director of the center.
"The decline between 1980 and 1990 was small, and, actually," said Rathge, "anecdotal evidence from national surveys suggests that the number of residents working at home has increased in the past 10 years. This is best reflected in data from a separate survey of business owners which reported that nearly half of the 17 million small businesses in the U.S. were home-based. Since Census data is based on primary source of income, many small business owners who work at home for their second job are not counted."
In North Dakota in 1990, almost two-thirds of those who worked at home were men. Nearly three-fourths were self-employed—which is nearly six times the rate of self-employment found among those who worked away from home. More than half of those working at home earned less than $10,000 a year. About 62 percent worked in the agricultural, forestry and fishing industries, and about 24 percent in service industries.
Twenty of North Dakota's 53 counties showed increases in at-home workers between 1980 and 1990. Of those, five counties showed increases of 50 percent or more: Grant up 85 percent, McKenzie up 62 percent, Sioux up 61 percent, Ward up 60 percent and Burleigh up 57 percent.
[EDITORS: TO LOCALIZE, SEE COUNTY DATA IN BLUE PUBLICATION FOLLOWING THIS STORY: "AT-HOME WORKERS IN NORTH DAKOTA, 1990." THIS PUBLICATION IS ALSO AVAILABLE FROM THE STATE DATA CENTER, BOX 5636, NDSU, FARGO, ND 58105.]
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Source: Richard Rathge (701) 231-8621
Editor: Barry Brissman (701) 231-7866