Survey of 10 cities shows office occupancy reached highest point since pandemic began

A survey of 10 of the largest cities in the country found that office occupancy is at its highest level since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

The survey from the security company Kastle Systems found that the average occupancy rate of offices in the 10 cities was 50.4 percent on Jan. 25, the first time that occupancy has been more than 50 percent since March 2020. 

The cities surveyed were San Jose, Calif.; Austin, Texas; San Francisco; Washington, D.C.; Dallas; Los Angeles; Houston; New York City; Chicago; and Philadelphia. 

Austin had the highest occupancy rate last Wednesday at 67.7 percent, followed by Houston with 60.3 percent. San Jose had the lowest with 41.1 percent and Philadelphia was second lowest with 42.7 percent. 

The highest average occupancy rate for the 10 cities for the week from Jan. 19 to 25 was 58.6 percent, and the lowest was 34.9 percent. 

Almost all of the cities surveyed had increased their occupancy rates compared to the week prior, except for Houston and Dallas. 

Workers overwhelmingly shifted to working virtually at the onset of the pandemic in 2020 but have gradually shifted back toward in-person work as normal activities have resumed and the effects of the pandemic have subsided. 

Some large companies, such as Tesla, have instituted requirements for their employees to work in an office for the entire workweek or part of it as the country has returned to normalcy due to declining COVID-19 rates. 

Kastle conducted its analysis through studying keycard, fob and KastlePresence app access data from 2,600 buildings and 41,000 businesses from 47 states. The data was anonymized for identifying trends in how people are returning to the office.