With fertility rates declining across much of the globe, remote work may offer one way to encourage more births. Nicholas Bloom, a Stanford University economics professor and remote-work expert, estimates that working from home has increased fertility by 5% in the United States and Northern Europe. The association is strongest among college-educated women aged 30 and older who already have one child. His estimate connects working arrangements with both the practical demands of parenthood and couples’ opportunities to conceive.
One explanation, Bloom told Fast Company, is that working remotely makes childcare more manageable. Taking children to a doctor, dentist, or orthodontist, responding when a problem arises at school, and collecting them early are among the responsibilities he highlighted. Such tasks are difficult to accommodate when a parent must leave home at eight in the morning and cannot return until six in the evening. Working from home makes it easier to handle these demands rather than trying to fit them around an entire day away from the house.
Bloom also points to another consideration: couples who work remotely have more opportunities to become pregnant. Conceiving can become more difficult after age 30, and particularly after 35, he explains, making timing an important factor. Remote work can make that timing easier to manage. His explanation therefore encompasses two distinct aspects of family life: caring for a child already in the household and finding opportunities to conceive another.
