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.
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Class A+ Occupancy
Class A+ buildings had a slight dip in weekly attendance to 74.5% slipping from the 76.8% for the prior week. Peak occupancy happened on Tuesday, and it dipped as well, registering 90.5% occupancy down from the prior week’s 93.7% No doubt the good weather across the nation last week encouraged a few absences even from high end buildings.
Peak Day
The peak day last week was Tuesday, March 31st in 9 of the 10 cities in the Barometer, with San Jose experiencing their peak on Wednesday, April 1st. Nationally the peak day attendance for all cities dropped from the prior week to 63.8%, down from 64.8%. Texas cities again led the way with Austin up to 92.8%, and Dallas jumping to 76.1%, while Houston gave a strong performance at 70.3% on Tuesday. New York led the rest of the nation at 68.0% with Chicago close behind at 66.3%. Philadelphia continues at the bottom of the list at 50% occupancy on their Peak Day, contrasted with a weekly average of 42.4% last week. Compared to the other nine cities, Philadelphia had the smallest variation across the five days in the week.
Weekly Average
Office occupancy increased three tenths of a point last week to 54.9%, even as seven of the ten cities in the Barometer saw slight decreases in occupancy. Austin (79.4%), Dallas (66.0%) and Houston (61.8%) pulled the national average up with high occupancies, especially Austin having a weekly increase of 8.6% following the end of spring break in Texas The biggest drop in weekly occupancy was in the Washington Metro Area , which fell 3.3% to a weekly average of 50.9%, followed by the Chicago metro area (53.2%) and Los Angeles (47.4%) after both dropped 1.5% for the week.
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.
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