Hi there,

I'm after some information on the US mobile workforce - the road
warriors. I would like to know how many people in the US qualify as
mobile workers (and what the definition is), what the forecasts are
for the growth in this form of employment, what type of industries
mobile workers are in, and what kind of people they are (Age, sex,
income, state of residency, ethnicity etc.). I'd also love to find
info on what companies are providing services specifically for mobile
workers, and what those services are.

Thanks,

Dave

Hi! Thanks for the very important question.

First of all let us define what a mobile, or sometimes called as
teleworking or telecommute, workforce is.

It is when a company brings its people (workforce or employees) as a
team when not all of them work at a central location. Some may work on
the road communicating with the office through their laptops internet
connection or with their cell phones or PDAs. Others may work at home
accessing company mission critical files through secured servers or
private networks on their computers. Surprisingly our first link is an
online brochure which provides us what a mobile workforce actually is
now and what it will be in the very near future.

Mobile Workforce: The Wave of the Future
http://www.saleslegend.com/docs/MobileWorkforceArticle.pdf

Teleworking arrangements according to the next link which is a web
article takes on different forms in answer to different needs.

“Teleworking arrangements may take on a variety of forms, depending on
the needs of the employee and employer. Part-time telework (usually
1-2 days per week) allows workers to avoid normal commutes to and from
the main office (hence the popular term "telecommuting", often used
synonymously with telework). Full-time teleworkers (4-5 days/week) are
members of "virtual teams" who assemble electronically from a variety
of (possibly changing) physical locations to solve business problems.”

What is Teleworking?
http://www.telework-connection.com/what-is.htm

The US mobile workforce situation is pictured differently by different
companies which makes the survey. But all are convinced that
teleworking is growing and is the trend.
 
In Telework America’s survey which was funded by AT&T, they pegged the
telework force as 28 million by August 2001. Furthermore they have a
fairly good demographic of what a teleworker or mobile worker is in
the United States. I provided short snippets from the article so as to
save you time.

1.“About one-fifth of the adult workforce 18 years of age and older do
some type of telework.”

2. “Compared to non-teleworkers, teleworkers are significantly more
likely to be from the Northeast and West, male, have higher education
and income, work in professional/managerial occupations, and be
employed in smaller and larger organizations.”

3. “Teleworkers are distributed proportionally in comparison to
non-teleworkers across marital status, racial/ethnic, and age groups”.

4. “While teleworkers may experience some personal costs, such as
working longer hours because they work from home, they also appear to
experience significant benefits compared to non-teleworkers in terms
of less interference between work and family roles.”

5. “Results for all teleworkers combined show that the vast majority
of teleworkers report being satisfied with their telework experience;
most prefer to continue doing telework.”

6. “Those who work from home, by far, report the most substantial
increase in productivity and quality since beginning to telework”

7. “Home-based workers also distinguish themselves from other
teleworkers by reporting the highest job satisfaction and organization
commitment and strongest desire to remain working in their
organization.”

8. “…those who have the highest education are significantly more
likely to work from home than to engage in other types of telework.”

9. “…teleworkers, on average, drive 5.7 to 18.6 miles per work day to
run errands.”

10. “About thirty percent of teleworkers move their residence. Of
those who relocated, 52% moved closer to their place of employment,
29% moved farther away, and 19% moved to a new residence that was the
same distance from their employer.”

Please read the whole article. It could be found at “Telework America
Survey 2001” by Donald D. Davis, Ph.D. and Karen A. Polonko, Ph.D.
Old Dominion University 
http://www.telecommute.org/twa/index.htm

In terms of the other demographic data you want: 

“Teleworker ages: 17%, 18-29 Yrs; 60%, 30-49 Yrs; 22%, 50-64 Yrs.”

“Teleworker income: 15% earn <$20,000; 9% earn >$100,000; 60% earn
$20-$80,000; mean of $44,000”

For other statistics for the Teleworker please go to the following:
Facts and Figures
http://www.youcanworkfromanywhere.com/infocenter/facts.htm

In a fairly recent article by the IDC, the US mobile workforce has
already reached 92 million in 2001 and would rise to 105 million by
2006.

“Researchers predicted the number of mobile workers in the U.S. will
rise by 12.7 million between 2001 and 2006, from 92 million to 105
million. Also, the number of workers who are not mobile will decline
by 2 million through 2006, down to 53.8 million, IDC said.
In other words, within three years, about two-thirds (66 percent) of
U.S. employees will be mobile workers.”

“The new wave will include both in-office workers and out-of-office
mobile workers, who are using wireless local area networks, such as
Wi-Fi  or
Bluetooth  , to stay connected and tap into files or databases from
remote locations, IDC said.
Boggs cited two critical forces driving growth in the mobile
workforce. First, the technology that makes mobile work possible is a
growth factor. In addition, the organizational requirements that have
created an association between mobility and greater effectiveness on
the job is fueling the increase in mobile workers.”

Mobile Workforce Nears 100-Million Mark  
By Jay Wrolstad
Wireless NewsFactor 
July 1, 2002
http://www.wirelessnewsfactor.com/perl/story/18453.html

Those companies that greatly affect the mobile worker’s performance
are the ones who provide products and services critical to the
teleworker.

Internet Access
http://www.findanisp.com/

Mobile Phone Networks
http://www.wireless-communication.org/service-providers/

Instant Messaging Companies
http://directory.google.com/Top/Computers/Software/Internet/Clients/Chat/Messaging_Services/

Faxing by Email
http://www.youcanworkfromanywhere.com/articles/5tools_roadwarriors_2.htm

PDAs
http://mediswww.meds.cwru.edu/pdasupport/pdaweb.htm

Virtual Offices
http://www.youcanworkfromanywhere.com/articles/5tools_roadwarriors_4.htm

Online Meetings and Conferences
http://www.youcanworkfromanywhere.com/articles/5tools_roadwarriors_5.htm
 
The lists were gathered from the next article.

5 Tools for Roadwarriors
http://www.youcanworkfromanywhere.com/articles/5tools_roadwarriors.htm

Here are some companies which target companies with mobile workers.

IntelliWhere
http://www.intelliwhere.com/1024x768.html

Earthlink
http://www.earthlinkconnect.com/promotion/t900po.html

Mobile Solutions Inc.
http://www.mobisol.com/

Cassetica Professional Services
http://www.cassetica.com/cassetica/consulting/our_services.htm

GRIC
http://www.gric.com/gric_mo.html

Search terms used:
Mobile workforce, teleworker services demographics

I hope this is what you were looking for. Please ask for a
clarification if you have a question or if you would need further
information. Good luck on your future endeavors and thanks for being a
part of Google Answers!

Regards,
Easterangel-ga