White-collar staff within the US who grew accustomed to working from home in the course of the pandemic are reportedly dragging their feet on returning to their desks as in comparison with their hard-charging counterparts in Europe and Asia.
US office occupancy rates are hovering between 40% and 60% of their pre-pandemic level — with variances based on month and on individual cities, in line with data from property services firm JLL published by the Wall Street Journal on Tuesday.
That US’ return-to-office figures are dwarfed by Asia’s post-pandemic office occupancy rate, which is hovering between 80% and 110%, in line with the JLL data.
An occupancy rate higher than 100% indicates that some locales in Asia have a greater number of individuals working on site than they did before the COVID-19 pandemic began in 2019.
Occupancy rates in Europe and the Middle East also surpass those of the US, hitting between 70% and 90%, the info show.
The Journal’s report noted several international cities, including Paris, Tokyo and Seoul, have office occupancy rates that rose above 75% between 2021 and 2022.
Manhattan office occupancy has hovered near 50%.AFP via Getty Images
“The US has borne the brunt of this,” JLL director of city future Phil Ryan told the newspaper.
Several aspects have contributed to America’s lagging return-to-office performance, in line with the Journal.
Experts pointed to an especially tight US labor market, with a national unemployment rate of just 3.4%, in addition to an inclination amongst American staff to have larger homes and longer commutes to the office.
In Paris, the return-to-office rate has surpassed 75%.Bloomberg via Getty Images
The red-hot jobs market forced many corporations, especially those within the tech sector, to rent distant staff to fill their ranks.
Latest York-based staff have a mean one-way commute of 58 minutes, while white-collar staffers in Paris average 52 minutes and Hong Kong staffers average 44, in line with data from Moovit Inc.
A growing variety of US corporations are exerting pressure on their employees to return to the office more often.
In Asia, some locales have more office staff on site than they did before the COVID-19 pandemic. Kyodo News via Getty Images
Disney and Amazon have recently faced pushback from corporate staffers after upping the variety of days per week that staff are expected on site.
Still, hybrid office schedules have sparked fears amongst city officials of a possible tax revenue shortfall.
Manhattan-based staff are spending $12.4 billion less per yr inside the city than they were prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, in line with research released last month by Stanford University economist Nicholas Bloom’s WFH Research group and reported by Bloomberg.
Latest York City Comptroller Brad Lander has warned the trend could drain much-needed revenue to keep up high-quality services.
