Office Attendance Hits Postpandemic High
New data shows the renewed push to get workers back to the office may be working.
Office attendance last week was at its highest levels since the pandemic, according to Kastle Systems. Weekly average occupancy reached 54.2% of foot traffic levels before the pandemic sent workers to their home offices.
The weekly average attendance rate has climbed 6.5 percentage points in the last month, with all 10 cities tracked by Kastle seeing occupancy tick up.
Houston leads the pack, with occupancy levels at 65% of prepandemic levels, followed by Austin at 61%. The Washington, D.C., metro saw a 7.5-percentage-point week-over-week increase in office attendance to claim the third spot, with 51.5% of 2019 office usage.
Chicago and Philadelphia round out the top five metros, although the City of Brotherly Love’s 44% comparative occupancy rate is below the national average, which has been lifted by attendance in the top few cities.
Still, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., and San Jose, California, all clocked record attendance levels in the latest Kastle data.
Tuesday remains the busiest day in the office, with occupancy across the 10 cities measured by Kastle hitting 63.4%, slightly above the same period in 2024. Friday is the quietest, with 36.7% of prepandemic foot traffic.
Office attendance during the middle of the week ticked up year-over-year in December, especially on Wednesdays, but occupancy levels on Mondays and Fridays slid modestly in 2024 from the prior year.
The uptick could reflect the more strict calls to return to the office at top U.S. firms. More than 80% of CEOs expect to bring their employees back to the office full-time sometime in the next three years, according to a survey from KPMG.
Washington, D.C., could also be seeing a boost from President Donald Trump’s push to bring federal workers back to the office that began with an inauguration-day Executive Order calling on all agencies to “take all necessary steps to terminate remote work arrangements.”
