Commuting statistics - February 7, 2012

It was colder this morning, taking Anya out for a walk at a little before noon, and even colder with a breeze walking home tonight, though it is nice to have it be light out at 5pm. The breeze had died down when I took her out again at 11 pm for an emergency outing—it is cold but pretty nice. The sky is clear and it's a full moon.

I really like that I can walk to and from work. It's not the same as being on an industrial-style schedule:

It's dark when I goes to work, and dark again at night
On Sundays and in summertime is when I see the light
Yes, on Sundays and in summertime I hear the small bird sing
But when you're two mile underground, you never hears a thing
—"Working on the Coalface," Dave Webber

Our house was built as housing for workers in the railyard behind us. It was an easy commute, just go through the gate beside the house and there you are. When it was built in 1890, somewhere around 42% of working Americans worked on farms, which mostly meant they lived on farms, either as farmers or as hired hands.

1890
Total Employment 23,740,000
Agriculture 9,990,000 (42%)
Manufacturing and hand trades 4,750,000
Construction 1,440,000
Transportation/Utilities 1,530,000
Trade, Finance and Real Estate 1,990,000
Service 1,500,000
Domestic service 1,520,000
Mining, forestry. fisheries 660,000
(Bicentennial Edition: Historical Statistics of the United States, Colonial Times to 1970, Census Bureau 1976)

By contrast, in 2012, out of total employment of 139,064,000,
Farming, fishing and forestry were only 987,000 (.7%) of the population
Management, professional and related occupations were 51,743,000
Sales and office jobs were 33,433,000
Service occupatiosn were 24,634,000
Construction and mining were 7,175,000
Manufacturing ("production occupations") were 7,998,000
Transportation was 8,182,000
and "Installation Maintenance and Repair Occupations" were 4,911,000

Most people who are not stay-at-home workers have to "go to work." Nowadays, "working from home" is more likely to mean some sort of piecework or professional service from a home office, than an agricultural job.

Most of us drive to work. About the same number of us work at home as walk to work, and te number who bike is very small indeed. 40% of us commute suburb-to-suburb. All this is such a radical change in how we physically relate home to work, as to make my head hurt.

Statistical overload