Dive Brief:

• Telecommuting has grown faster than any other way of getting to work, up 159% since 2000, according to a Quartz analysis of data from the U.S. census and the American Community Survey. Computer programmers represent the largest percentage of telecommuters among all occupations.

• Nearly 8% of programmers now work from home. That’s an increase of nearly 400% since 2000, according to Quartz.

• In all, a record 2.6% of American employees now work from home — more than walk and bike to work combined.

Dive Insight:

More tech workers are looking for flexible roles, and given the tight tech talent market, most feel free to ask for such options. More than half of the 64,000 developers that responded Stack Overflow's 2017 developer survey released last month indicated remote options were a top priority when considering a new job. Nearly 64% reported working remotely at least one day a month, and 11% say they’re full-time remote, or nearly fulltime.

CIOs can support a mobile work force with device management systems and other technologies, and can even use mobility as a perk to attract more tech workers. That means making sure internal tools, including things like intranets and sales portals, are responsive and efficient.

Companies like Samsung are looking to capitalize on the trend too. Though it’s traditionally focused more on consumers, Samsung recently indicated it is upping its focus on providing enterprises with secure mobile tech to support a workforce that increasingly conducts work outside a traditional office environment.