D.C. Hitting New Return-To-Office Highs After Federal Mandate

The city is seeing its first signs of the Trump administration’s push to bring federal employees back to the office.

Metro ridership has hit new record highs and office card swipes have been steadily increasing in recent weeks. 

Last Tuesday, Metro rail and bus ridership was up 12% from the same time last year, according to Bisnow’s analysis of Metro data, with ridership reaching 909,472 — a more than 113,000 person increase from 2024. 

After President Donald Trump ordered agencies to bring workers back to the office five days a week on his inauguration day, many agencies decided to use Feb. 24 as their return-to-office deadline. 

On that day, Metro recorded its highest number of Monday passengers in five years, and on Tuesday, it had the highest number of weekday rush hour travelers since before the pandemic.

“We are definitely starting to see some crowding on the system,” WMATA General Manager and CEO Randy Clarke said in a Feb. 25 interview with D.C.’s News4. 

Metro’s NoMa station hit a trip record on Feb. 25 and then again on Feb. 26, when it saw the most passengers in its 20-year history. The station is close to agency offices, including the Department of Justice and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. 

Tracking how much of that impact is directly related to the federal push is a difficult task — the government doesn't make data on in-office attendance publicly available.

But Kastle Systems, which tracks office key swipes around the country, told Bisnow that federal buildings make up about 5% of the properties it tracks in the city. 

Its data shows that for the past two weeks, D.C. hit a record postpandemic occupancy of 52.8% of the prepandemic occupancy over the five-day workweek.

Those weeks came after D.C. hit a peak of 51.1% of its prepandemic level the week ending Wednesday, February 19.

Submarket data from Kastle shows that downtown D.C., Northern Virginia and Suburban Maryland all had occupancy increases of more than 2 percentage points last week compared to the same period last year. 

Swipes in downtown D.C. were 50.6% of their prepandemic levels last week, higher than 47.3% in 2024. 

“We’re seeing significantly more people in their offices since the middle of January, with keycard utilization rates up nearly 7% year-over-year, translating to thousands of more people Downtown each week.,” DowntownDC BID Director of Planning & Economic Development Mark Simpson told Bisnow in an email.

“A dynamic and thriving DC region relies on a strong downtown core; while we’re encouraged to see more in-office activity, retaining these gains for the long term means ensuring that we have a healthy local economy and robust workforce,” he added.

Suburban Maryland last week had 48.6% of prepandemic swipes, compared to 46% during the same week in 2024, while Northern Virginia's 52.8% last week was up from 47.2% last year.

Federal agencies are still rolling out their back-to-work policies, and not all agencies are back in full force yet.

The Department of Education said that about 70% of its workforce was back in person as of Feb. 24, and all employees will be back on June 1. 

Though on Tuesday, the agency announced it fired 1,315 workers, a move which leaves it with half the number of employees it had at the beginning of the year.

The Environmental Protection Agency ordered non-unionized employees and employees under five different unions back to the office by Feb. 24, but employees represented by the American Federation of Government Employees have until March 24.

Counteracting the return-to-office requirements are the mass layoffs the administration is undertaking. 

There are about 90,000 federal workers who work in the District, making up 25% of its total workforce, according to D.C.'s Office of the Chief Financial Officer. The office said this month that it estimates the city will lose 40,000 federal jobs by 2029.  

On Thursday, Department of Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy released a statement urging D.C. leaders to focus more on transit safety measures, such as reducing crime and Metro fare evasion, as more federal workers commute to offices. 

“The President has called for people to return to office, and it is critical we ensure workers’ safety during their daily commute,” Duffy said. “That is why I am taking action to direct those responsible for ensuring safety for passengers and workers in D.C. to make necessary improvements and upgrades.”