Large companies such as Yahoo! and Best Buy recently have made headlines with new policies that prohibit working from home. This runs counter to the growing trend of more Americans telecommuting. According to a U.S. Census Bureau study published last year, the number of Americans working at home increased from 3.6% to 4.3% from 2005 to 2010.

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While less than 2% of the labor force in some metropolitan areas work from their residences full time, in some areas it is far more. In three metro areas, including Boulder, Colo.; Santa Fe, N.M.; and Bremerton-Silverdale, Wash., at least 10% of the workforce calls the office home. Based on Census data, 24/7 Wall St. identified the 10 metro areas where the most people work from home.

Nearly half of people who work from home were self-employed, according to the Census bureau. In several of the cities with the most at-home workers, the proportion of workers who are self-employed is very high. In Medford, 11% worked from home, the seventh highest of all metro areas. In the Santa Fe metro area, 13.8% of all workers worked from home, a higher percentage than all other areas.

The metro areas on our list are not the largest in the country, where big employers are typically located. However, many are relatively close to large cities. For example, Bremerton is connected to Seattle via an hour-long ferry ride, while Boulder is only 25 miles from Denver.

John Challenger, CEO of outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas, said in an interview with 24/7 Wall St. that places where there are a lot of employees working from home tend to be on the outskirts of larger metropolitan areas. As people moved out to the exurbs in recent decades, it became harder for workers to commute into the office on a daily basis. Many companies, not wanting to lose these employees, allowed them to telecommute.

In addition, Challenger pointed out that people working from home are able to work from basically anywhere, and choose to live in highly desirable areas. Many cities with a disproportionate number of residents that work at home are in the Rockies and near the West Coast are particularly appealing to flexible workers due to the outdoor attractions of the mountains and the open space for activities like hiking and biking.

“I’ve talked with a number of people in the last several years who have said, ‘I’ve moved from job to job and I’ve just decided that I’m going to pick a city and that’s going to be home base,’” Challenger noted.

“There are more early adopter companies [in the West] than there are in other areas of the country,” Challenger said, pointing out that the employers, often in technology, are more flexible about allowing people to telecommute.

It isn’t entirely clear whether the trend of working from home will continue. Job growth is taking place at two levels, Gary Burtless, a senior fellow of economic studies at the Brookings Institution, said in an interview. A significant amount is a due to an increase in low-skilled jobs in retail, groundskeeping and fast-food, where telecommuting isn’t practical.

However, high-skilled are also growing. As the Internet and cloud computing becoming increasingly important, “many these people can work in their pajamas,” Burtless said.

Based on data from the U.S. Census Bureau, 24/7 Wall St. identified the 10 metropolitan areas where highest percentage of the labor force works from home every day of the week. We reviewed additional workforce data including median earnings, median age of workers, average commute time and the division of labor based on industry. All data was provided by the Census Bureau, excluding unemployment, which is from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

These are the 10 cities where the most Americans work from home.

10. Manhattan, Kan.
> Pct. working from home: 7.6% (tied for 9th highest)
> Unemployment rate: 4.7%
> Pct. of workers self-employed: 3.7%

The nearest large metropolitan area to Manhattan is Kansas City, approximately 120 miles away. It is home to three Fortune 500 Companies: Sprint Nextel, Seaboard and YRC Worldwide. In addition to those that work at home, 42.4% of workers in the Manhattan area are government employees, the second-highest percentage of all metropolitan areas. Kansas State University is the largest employer in the metropolitan area, while Fort Riley army base is also located near Manhattan. The median age of employees in the area is just 32.5, one of the lowest in the country.

9. Boise City-Nampa, Idaho
> Pct. working from home: 7.6% (tied for 9th highest)
> Unemployment rate: 6.2%
> Pct. of workers self-employed: 6.5%

Boise is the largest city in and capital of Idaho and is home to Boise State University, Idaho’s largest university. According to the Boise Office of Economic Development, the largest publicly traded company headquartered in the city is the memory technology and semiconductor maker Micron Technology. Some of the city’s larger employers outside the government are call centers — the city has more than 20 — or technology companies, which may explain the large number of people working from home.

8. Medford, Ore.
> Pct. working from home: 7.8%
> Unemployment rate: 9.5%
> Pct. of workers self-employed: 11.0%

Medford lacks major corporate employers and is also far from any of the big cities in either California or Washington. The area’s largest employer, excluding the local health system, is fruit and direct gift merchandiser Harry & David. According to its website, the company employs roughly 1,700 full-time workers with an additional 5,000 employees during holiday peaks. Many area residents struggle to find work; in December the area’s unemployment rate of 9.5% was well above the 7.8% for the nation as a whole. Some 11% of Medford’s workforce was considered self-employed as of 2011, more than all but six metropolitan areas.

7. San Luis Obispo-Paso Robles, Calif.
> Pct. working from home: 8.2%
> Unemployment rate: 7.3%
> Pct. of workers self-employed: 10.4%

San Luis Obispo is located in central California, halfway between Los Angeles and San Francisco. Among the largest employers in the area are the County of San Luis Obispo, California Polytechnic State University, the local hospital system and a correctional facility. The largest private employer is San Francisco-based Pacific Gas and Electric Company. Possibly due to the lack of major businesses, residents are especially likely to be self-employed. In 2011 more than 10% of workers were self-employed, higher than all but nine other cities.

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6. Bend, Ore.
> Pct. working from home: 8.6%
> Unemployment rate: 10.8%
> Pct. of workers self-employed: N/A

Bend was deeply hurt by the Great Recession, and at the end of 2009 and 2010 had unemployment rates of 15.2% and 14.1%, respectively. Even at the end of 2012, the Bend metro area still had one of the higher unemployment rates in the nation at 10.8% — three percentage points above the national rate. There are few major employers in Bend. According to Economic Development for Central Oregon, the only employer with more than 1,000 workers as of mid-2012 was the St. Charles Medical Center. Many residents have turned to a burgeoning craft beer industry for employment, and the city was Oregon’s leader in craft breweries per capita in 2012, according to The Seattle Times.

5. Jacksonville, N.C.
> Pct. working from home: 9.1%
> Unemployment rate: 8.8%
> Pct. of workers self-employed: 4.6%

Among the top 15 employers in Jacksonville in 2011 were call-center companies Convergys Customer Management Group and PRC Call Centers, which allow people who live nearby to work from home. In addition to self-employed workers, a whopping 52.7% of people in the metropolitan area work for the government, more than any other metropolitan area in the country. Jacksonville is home to the massive Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune. The median earnings for workers in Jacksonville was less than $25,000 in 2011 — among the lowest in the United States.

4. Columbus, Ga.-Ala.
> Pct. working from home: 9.2%
> Unemployment rate: 9.0%
> Pct. of workers self-employed: 4.0%

Among the 10 largest employers in the Columbus area are Aflac and Blue Cross Blue Shield of Georgia, both of which offer work-from-home options for a large portion of their staffs. Furthermore, 29.4% of the labor force in the Columbus metropolitan area works for the government, nearly double that of the country as a whole. At the end of 2012, the unemployment rate in Columbus was 9%, well above the 7.8% rate nationwide. Additionally, median earnings for workers in the Columbus area were just $27,327, nearly $5,000 lower than the national figure. The city of Columbus is approximately 100 miles from Atlanta.

3. Bremerton-Silverdale, Wash.
> Pct. working from home: 10.0%
> Unemployment rate: 7.0%
> Pct. of workers self-employed: 5.1%

The Bremerton metropolitan area is one of just three areas where at least 10% of the population works from home. One of the reasons why people are more likely to work from home could be long commutes. Bremerton has an average commute time of 28.7 minutes, among the highest of all metropolitan areas in the country. In addition, more than 36% of employees in the Bremerton area work for the government, the seventh-highest percentage of all metro areas. Employees in Bremerton earned a median of $36,822 in 2011, $4,500 more than the median of employees nationwide.

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2. Santa Fe, N.M.
> Pct. working from home: 11.0%
> Unemployment rate: 5.1%
> Pct. of workers self-employed: 13.8%

Santa Fe’s workers have to pursue careers outside of large corporations, since no Fortune 500 companies are headquartered in the state. Additionally, many workers may choose because of their age to pursue occupations with more flexible hours or responsibilities. As of 2011, Santa Fe had one of the oldest workforces in the country — the median age of workers was 46.7 years, the sixth oldest of all metropolitan areas and well above the national figure of 42.1 years. Residents were also extremely likely to run their own businesses. In 2011, nearly 14% of workers in Santa Fe were self-employed, a higher percentage than any other metropolitan area in the country. By comparison, just 6.1% of workers were self-employed nationwide.

1. Boulder, Colo.
> Pct. working from home: 11.3%
> Unemployment rate: 5.5%
> Pct. of workers self-employed: 9.1%

Boulder has the highest percentage of people working from home in the nation. The metropolitan area is home to a variety of technology start-ups, which may make telecommuting feasible for employees. In addition, Boulder is adjacent to the Denver metropolitan area, which is home to nine Fortune 500 Companies, including Arrow Electronics, DISH Network and Liberty Interactive. Boulder is well known for attracting people who are interested in the outdoors, due to its location in the Rockies. A striking 4% of workers commute by bike, the second-largest percentage of all metro areas. Nearly 25% of area workers earned more than $75,000, the sixth-highest percentage of all metropolitan areas.

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