Remote workers are losing ground in working from home: More than half of employees went to the office last week
More than half of workers in major U.S. cities went to the office last week, the first time that returns to the office exceeded 50% of their pre-pandemic levels.
An index of building occupancy in 10 major metro areas rose 0.9 percentage points to 50.4% in the week ended January 25, according to security firm Kastle Systems. All cities tracked by the company — including San Francisco, Chicago, and Austin, Texas — achieved office yields of 40% or more, also a post-pandemic first.
Occupancy remained stable or rose in most of the cities tracked, including New York, where it rose to 47.5% on the week, and San Francisco, which rose more than two percentage points to 45.9%. Austin had the highest score at nearly 68%, while the San Jose, California area, which includes much of Silicon Valley, had the lowest score at 41%.
Data is based on average weekly access card activity in buildings with Kastle security systems compared to a pre-pandemic baseline.
Breaking the 50% occupancy threshold is a milestone that’s sure to be cheered by business leaders on Wall Street and elsewhere who have been pushing for more office presence. But it’s coming much later than most back-to-office advocates expected, due to health concerns related to multiple Covid-19 variants, remote-first arrangements by some organizations and, most importantly, workers’ reluctance to give up the flexibility that she I came to enjoy and anticipate work from home.
Many organizations that employ office workers currently use some sort of hybrid arrangement, with workers splitting their time at home and on site.
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