Hybrid work patterns reveal occupancy varies throughout the week with Tuesdays typically being the highest day of the week and Fridays being the lowest. The chart below tracks Tuesday occupancy over time in ten cities and provides a new dimension to the weekly Barometer report. The Peak Day Hybrid Index will now be published weekly, offering a wider aperture into the full picture of workplace occupancy.
Get Weekly UpdatesYou can now track the Return to Work Barometer on the Bloomberg Terminal, available under {ALLX KASL<GO>}
Office Occupancy Drops for Rosh Hashanah Holiday
Peak day office occupancy was 62.9% on Wednesday last week, less than one tenth of a point higher than occupancy on Tuesday and two and a half points lower than the previous week, as workers across the country stayed home in observance of Rosh Hashanah. Average occupancy was down every day of the week except Thursday. The average low was on Friday at 33.1%, also down two and a half points from last week.
Weekly average occupancy fell 1.6 points from the previous week to 54.1%, according to the 10-city Back to Work Barometer. Every tracked city experienced a decline, led by New York City, down 3.4 points to 54.3%, and Austin, down three points to 68.4%. Occupancy in six of the 10 cities dropped by more than a full point.
Last week, Class A+ peak day occupancy was 88.3% on Tuesday, more than nine points lower than the previous week. Weekly average occupancy among the Barometer’s Class A+ buildings was 76.3%, down three full points from last week. We will continue to provide insights from this subset of over 100 buildings within the Barometer dataset, which have been categorized as Class A+.
NOTE: Due to the stability of the Back-to-Work Barometer data and its very minimal deviation each week, we are now going to be distributing the graphic illustrations of the Barometer only once per month rather than our current weekly cadence. However, we will continue to send the text portion Barometer status email weekly (and add the illustrations every fourth week). We will also only be updating the website Barometer graphic illustrations every four weeks.
Methodology
To provide some clarity on the issues facing American businesses, Kastle has been studying keycard, fob and KastlePresence app access data from the 2,600 buildings and 41,000 businesses we secure across 47 states. We’re analyzing the anonymized data to identify trends in how Americans are returning to the office.
We have tracked and published U.S. office occupancy status in Kastle-secured commercial properties since the beginning of the Covid crisis in early 2020. We continue to seek to help companies navigate the ever-changing workplace landscape and adjust to the ‘new normal’ of office occupancy. Whether full-time hybrid or in-person, our commitment remains to helping American businesses understand how average workplaces are being attended weekly, monthly, and annually.
Kastle’s reach of buildings, businesses and cardholders secured generates millions of access events daily as users enter office complexes, and individual company workspaces. The Barometer weekly report summarizes access control data among our business partners in ten major metro areas, not a national statistical sample. Charted percentages reflect unique authorized user entries in each market relative to a pre-COVID baseline, averaged weekly.*
*On March 22, 2021, Kastle moved from daily to weekly data reporting to provide a more robust and comprehensive picture of office occupancy. We have also recalculated data back to the start of the time series for consistency. This has only a marginal impact on most cities and the national average.
Click here for more information about the Barometer methodology and FAQ
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