Nikki Haley makes claim about the percent of federal employees who work remotely
The New Hampshire first-in-the-nation primary is now just over two weeks away, and recent polling shows that former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley is steadily making gains against former President Donald Trump's lead.
This election season, WMUR is partnering with PolitiFact to fact-check the presidential hopefuls on both sides of the aisle.
During a town hall in Rye last week, Haley claimed that most federal employees are still working remotely.
"Do you know right now, over 70% of federal employees are still working from home three years after COVID?" Haley asked the crowd.
PolitiFact found Haley's claim to be mostly false, reporting that she is pulling data from a federal survey.
"The grain of truth that keeps it from false [it] is that from a major federal survey that you have every year in federal workers," said Lou Jacobson from PolitiFact. "You can get close to 70 percent and 60 percent, if you include anybody ever teleworking, but that includes people who almost never telework, it's just like they happen to be sick or something."
PolitiFact reported that approximately half of federal employees — about 37 percent — worked a majority of the week remotely, and among all respondents, 46% said they rarely or never work remotely.
"On the one hand, she's sort of implying that the private sector is all 100% back to work, and that's not true," Jacobson said.
PolitiFact found that although the percentage of federal government employees who work remotely is higher than it was before the pandemic, remote work in private companies has increased, too. Jacobson also added that Haley is leaving out the positive benefits of telework, including less commute time, and gasoline spent, and flexibility with your schedule.