Everyone else learned to work from home. You learned where the badge reader is. In 2020 the world moved to laptops and stayed there. Mechanical engineering kept its seat in the plant, see Reason #20.
In the same year the pandemic hit, economists Jonathan Dingel and Brent Neiman classified every occupation in the United States by whether it could be performed entirely from home. They used federal O*NET work context surveys, the same database that describes what you actually do all day. Their paper has been cited nearly two thousand times. Software developers: teleworkable. Electrical engineers: teleworkable. Civil engineers: teleworkable. Aerospace, biomedical, environmental, computer hardware, electronics: all teleworkable. Mechanical engineers: not teleworkable (Table 1). The work hugs hardware (see Reason #64), and the classification caught it (Dingel & Neiman, 2020).
The distinction matters because it is not about preference. It is about structure. Electrical engineers model circuits in simulation environments that run the same on a kitchen table as in a cubicle. Civil engineers review submittals, run structural models, and stamp drawings, all of which travel over a VPN. Aerospace engineers spend their days in systems engineering tools and requirements databases. You spend yours waiting for a test chamber, chasing a supplier cert, or walking a production line to verify a first article. Your calendar follows equipment, not your preferences, see Reason #14. The Bureau of Labor Statistics does not even mention remote work as an option in its Occupational Outlook Handbook entry for mechanical engineers. For software developers, remote work is the opening line of the work environment section (BLS, 2025a; BLS, 2025b).
By the first quarter of 2024, 22.9 percent of American workers were teleworking at least part of the week. Among management, professional, and related occupations, the rate was 33.7 percent. The workers who benefited most were the ones in occupations classified as teleworkable. The ones who did not benefit were concentrated in production, transportation, construction, and the hardware-bound corners of engineering. Your corner. Remote-capable workers can live anywhere their internet reaches. You live where the plant is (see Reason #11), and the commute, the relocation, and the time lost to being physically present are costs your employer never has to reimburse (see Reason #66) (BLS, 2025c).
Hybrid promises drift back to on-site because gates, audits, and signoffs exist in places without Zoom. You can move a CAD file from a couch, but you cannot run a thermal cycle, chase a vibration, or witness a UL pre-scan from there. Suppliers still want eyes on parts, not emails about them. When timing gets tight, the question is not "Can you log in." It is "Can you be here." And oversupply keeps it that way. Employers can insist on butts in bays and still fill the role. If you cannot make second shift for a retest, someone else will, see Reason #1.
Even the mechanical drafter, the person who draws what you engineer, was classified as teleworkable (Table 1). Your downstream output can be produced remotely. You cannot.
Data Tables
Table 1. Teleworkability Classification by Engineering Discipline
| Occupation | SOC Code | Teleworkable |
|---|---|---|
| Software Developers | 15-1132 | Yes |
| Electrical Engineers | 17-2071 | Yes |
| Electronics Engineers | 17-2072 | Yes |
| Computer Hardware Engineers | 17-2061 | Yes |
| Civil Engineers | 17-2051 | Yes |
| Aerospace Engineers | 17-2011 | Yes |
| Environmental Engineers | 17-2081 | Yes |
| Biomedical Engineers | 17-2031 | Yes |
| Mechanical Engineers | 17-2141 | No |
| Mechanical Drafters | 17-3013 | Yes |
Source: Dingel & Neiman (2020), O*NET work context classification. Binary: 1 = can be performed entirely at home, 0 = cannot. Replication data: github.com/jdingel/DingelNeiman-workathome
References:
Dingel, J. I., & Neiman, B. (2020). How many jobs can be done at home? Journal of Public Economics, 189, 104235. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpubeco.2020.104235
Bureau of Labor Statistics. (2025a). Occupational Outlook Handbook: Mechanical engineers. U.S. Department of Labor. https://www.bls.gov/ooh/architecture-and-engineering/mechanical-engineers.htm
Bureau of Labor Statistics. (2025b). Occupational Outlook Handbook: Software developers, quality assurance analysts, and testers. U.S. Department of Labor. https://www.bls.gov/ooh/computer-and-information-technology/software-developers.htm
Bureau of Labor Statistics. (2025c). Telework trends. Beyond the Numbers, 14(2). https://www.bls.gov/opub/btn/volume-14/telework-trends.htm
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