OFFICES IN U.S. REACH 50 PERCENT OCCUPANCY LEVELS
First time over half of workers have returned since the pandemic hit
More than half of workers in major U.S. cities went to the office last week, the first time that return-to-office rates crossed 50 percent of their pre-pandemic levels.
An index of building occupancies in 10 major metro areas increased 0.9 percentage points to 50.4 percent in the week ended Jan. 25, according to security firm Kastle Systems. All of the cities tracked by the company — including San Francisco, Chicago and Austin, Texas — reached return-to-office levels of 40 percent or above, which was also a postpandemic first.
Most of the cities tracked saw their occupancy hold steady or
rise, including New York, where it increased to 47.5 percent for the week, and San Francisco, which rose more than 2 percentage points to 45.9 percent. Austin had
the highest level, at almost 68 percent, while the San Jose area that includes much of Silicon Valley was the lowest, at 41 percent.
The data is based on average weekly access-card activity at buildings with Kastle security systems, compared with a prepandemic baseline.
Crossing the 50 percent occupancy threshold is a milestone sure to be cheered by business leaders on Wall Street and elsewhere who have pushed for more in-office attendance. But it comes much later than most return-tooffice advocates had expected, due to health concerns surrounding multiple coronavirus variants, remote-first arrangements by some organizations and, most of all, workers’ reluctance to give up the flexibility they’ve come to enjoy and expect from working from home.
Many organizations that employ desk workers currently use some type of hybrid arrangement, with workers splitting their work time between home and the office.