Building on previous work examining broadband availability across different geographies by population, this report examines broadband availability by job location. As in Broadband Availability, Beyond the Rural/Urban Divide, this report divides the United States into five categories based on the degree of urbanization. Rather than examining broadband and general population levels; however, this report assesses the impact of broadband availability in the workplace. Virtually all jobs have access to very basic broadband speeds. However, jobs located in more rural communities have less access to high-speed broadband than more urban communities, for both upload and download speeds, and the gaps in availability generally are greater at higher speeds.

This brief also examines two industries – manufacturing and information. Manufacturing jobs, which are relatively concentrated in more rural communities, have less access to higher speed broadband than information jobs, which are concentrated in more urbanized communities.