Snapshots

Office attendance rates trending 9% higher year-over-year

June 14, 2023

Contributors:

Although office re-entry rates measured by badge swipes in the Kastle index have seemingly plateaued since the second half of 2022, attendance continues to grow when accounting for seasonal attendance variance over the course of the calendar year.

Attendance rates reached their post-pandemic high in February, with weekly attendance relative to benchmarks reaching 50.4%, but this reflected just 1.4% higher than the previous peak in October 2022.

Because of the concept of mid-week crowding, or the tendency of hybrid employees to attend offices on the same days, a reduction in office attendance will not necessarily translate to a proportional decline in space requirements – hybrid employees attending three days per week would utilize the office 60% as often, but may require nearly the same amount of office space as employees in offices all week.

In each year since the pandemic onset, office attendance has been strongest in the post-Labor Day, pre-Thanksgiving period of Q4—in 2022, attendance in that period was 20% higher than the first five months of the year, and in 2021 attendance was nearly 50% higher.

Company attendance policies among major employers are continuing to shift in favor of office attendance on a near-weekly basis: in the past two weeks, both Meta Platforms and law firm Skadden, Arps, Slate & Meagher announced new office attendance mandates impacting large shares of their workforce.

Sublease inventory continues to stabilize

Sublease inventory stabilizing

Law firm leasing is exceeding pre-pandemic levels

Positive leasing momentum in recent quarters has driven gross U.S. office leasing activity to 75% of pre-pandemic levels.

Conversions are helping offset the rise in vacancy

Conversions are mitigating the rise in vacancy