Office Occupancy Hits New Pandemic-Era High As More Employers Plan To Add Space

Office usage hit an average 51.6% during the week of Dec. 6 in the 10 metro areas tracked by Kastle Systems' Back to Work Barometer, the highest level since the beginning of the pandemic.

“For most of 2023, the five-day weekly average has hovered around 50% of pre-pandemic occupancy, but the high day each week has been closer to 60% and the low day around 30%,” the report says.

More people come into the office on Tuesdays than any other day, Kastle reports. On the first Tuesday in December this year, office usage came in at a 10-city average of 61.6%, up from less than 45% in 2021.

A separate survey by MRI Software and CoreNet Global released early in December found that organizations are interested in leasing more office space in the new year.

Some 42% of respondents to the survey, which queried more than 1,300 occupiers worldwide, said they plan to lease more space. That figure was less than 10% in December 2022, 11% in August 2021 and 9% in March 2021.

Looking ahead, about two-thirds of respondents expect no more than half of their employees to be on-site by the end of 2024.

“Commercial landlords and leasing agents can take comfort in the anticipated expansions of space.” MRI Software Industry principal Brian Zrimsek said in a statement. “But it's also clear that attitudes and policies are continuing to shift, and the labor market will influence the extent to which employers will allow flexibility or improve their office environments.”

Half of survey respondents said that between 26% and 50% of their workforces worked on hybrid schedules, up from less than 15% in December 2022. But those with 76% to 100% of workers on a hybrid schedule dropped to around 6% in this year's survey, a dramatic fall from 30% last year.