Ethan Chernofsky, Senior Vice President of Marketing at Placer.ai, reported that despite a growing number of employees returning to the office, metrics are still fluctuating. In their November 2024 Office Index report, Placer.ai described the situation as “two steps forward and one step back.”
Specifically:
– Nationwide visits to office buildings decreased from 66.7% in November 2023 and 66.0% in October 2024 to only reaching 62.4%.
This was noted as the “most significant drop in office foot traffic since January of that year,” according to the report.
While this decline is noteworthy, it could be attributed to record-breaking travel over Thanksgiving.
“With remote work allowing professionals more flexibility than ever before, many may have extended their trips without taking additional time off work,” explained Chernofsky.
He also mentioned that factors like weather and holidays can influence office visits but overall there is a trend towards recovery with some impact from hybrid work arrangements.
Despite this national decrease in visits compared to pre-pandemic levels,
cities like Miami (84%) and New York (81.9%) continue on strong paths towards recovery due partly because they have strict return-to-office policies in place.
Chernofsky observed that businesses believe face-to-face interactions play an essential role for success which contributes greatly towards encouraging employees back into physical offices again after months working remotely.
The report also highlighted San Francisco’s slight increase (1.6%) compared year-over-year while New York saw a decrease by -8%. This could be due partly because finance workers took advantage of remote capabilities for extended “workcations” during holiday season congestion or public transit disruptions; however given NYC’s overall strong trajectory toward recovery suggests higher growth potential come January next year post-holidays.
Overall though Chernofsky stated it isn’t about whether we’ll see full recoveries occur but rather how much specific workers will return. “Distance and having children are significant factors in determining how often employees will be present in the office each week,” he added.
While there is a perceived benefit to working together face-to-face for collaboration and performance, many businesses are open to exploring hybrid work arrangements. Chernofsky noted that this shows companies want to offer flexibility while still maintaining the value of in-person collaboration.
