Nearly 60% of Manhattan office workers in the top U.S. commercial property market have returned to their workplace following the Labor Day holiday, according to a new report. Still, the encouraging sign aside, don't expect that rate to climb much higher anytime soon.
Fifty-eight percent of Manhattan office workers are back at their workplace on an average weekday, post-Labor Day, up from 52% in late January and 49% in September 2022, a study released Monday by The Partnership for New York City said. The business group surveyed more than 140 major Manhattan office employers between Aug. 23 and Sept. 15.
Employers expect Manhattan office attendance won’t see any big jump for “the foreseeable future” and will inch up just slightly to 59%, or 73% of the pre-pandemic “normal,” the study said. About 80% of workers were in the office on the average weekday before the pandemic began, according to the study.
With more companies calling employees back to the office, the improvement in Manhattan’s office utilization rate also could be found in security firm Kastle Systems’ latest keycard access swipe data. New York’s office utilization rate in the week that ended Sept. 20 topped or stood at the 50% threshold for two consecutive weeks, the first time that has happened since the start of the pandemic.
New York previously had crossed the half mark only two other times since early 2020, according to Kastle.
How workers are using their workplace in New York is closely monitored because Manhattan is a barometer for the rest of the country. A slow return-to-office rate has played a part in driving New York’s office vacancy to what CoStar data shows as a record high of 13.4%.
For instance, among companies with at least one office outside of New York, 84% in the partnership’s study said the flexibility of their remote-work policy is uniform across geographies.
The partnership’s study also pointed to the new hybrid work pattern. While only 6% of office workers are doing fully remote work, down from 10% in January, just 12% of Manhattan office workers are working five days a week in the office. Some 44% of workers are in the office three days a week, with another 16% of workers being in the office either two or four days per week.
Echoing its previous findings, the partnership’s latest survey found that the real estate industry has the highest average daily attendance, at 75%, as of September, followed by financial services at 65% and law at 65%.