Nashvillians Working From Home Soars

The Tennessean:

More Nashville-area residents are choosing to work from home at a time when the job market is getting tighter. Davidson County saw a 54 percent increase to 14,990 people working at home from 2006 to 2007, outpacing the nation’s growth as well as that of comparable cities such as Charlotte, N.C., according to U.S. Census data.

The growth spurt was probably boosted in small measure by musicians working out of their homes rather than going to a larger studio, said Dr. Patrick Raines, dean of Belmont University’s College of Business Administration and professor of economics.

In addition, businesses that outsource work to at-home workers are often able to trim office expenses, and that may be another factor driving the trend here.

Randell Bracery of Pleasant View, Tenn., wasn’t ready to stop working when he took a buyout package from the state government and left his job in database programming.

Instead, Bracery, 56, has been working mostly from home, selling Amish jams, pickled vegetables and some office supplies. He travels to Guthrie, Ky., to pick up food products from Amish country and later drops off the products at retail stores in Pleasant View and at the Opry Mills mall here.

He takes in about $550 a month in gross sales from the retail business, or about one-sixth of what he made with the state, although he does get other monthly income through his state pension.

Photo by Exothermic.

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