"It's a counter, really, to offshoring. But instead of the company sending jobs again to foreign countries, they actually send them away from their site, but they keep them in this country," says Dr. Walden, a specialist with the North Carolina Cooperative Extension Service.

"And how do they do that? Well, they send the jobs to people's homes. The company benefits by being able to cut down on their overhead and by doing they can more effectively compete with cheaper foreign labor," he adds.

"Many companies have found that home-shoring is actually cheaper than offshoring. And a lot of people like it -- perhaps families with children, one of the spouses wants to stay home, perhaps homeschooling the children or just being there when the children are home from school.

"One of the big downsides, of course, is on the benefits side: Oftentimes these home-shore jobs will not have benefits. But again the worker has to balance that with flexibility and convenience."