WASHINGTON — Cellphones may seem like an appendage to most people, but a new survey found landline phones are essential to many Americans at work.
The Pew Research Center found that 35 percent of more than 1,000 American workers polled said landlines are “very important” at work.
However, a more telling sign of the times is the reliance on email. Sixty percent of those polled called email “very important” at work. Also, 24 percent said cellphone or smartphones are “very important” to their work.
Four out of 10 American households use only cellphones and have ditched the landlines, according to a government survey in July. That’s twice the number from just five years ago.
Landlines remain indispensable to more than one-third of those surveyed.
The analysis in this report is based on a survey conducted in September 2014 among a sample of 1,066 adult Internet users, 18 years of age or older. The survey included 535 adults employed full-time or part-time.
Sampling error for the study is plus or minus 4.9 percentage points.
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