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
More workers in Class A+ buildings took time away from the office during the week after Thanksgiving at a greater rate than did workers in all buildings, with peak occupancy the Tuesday after the holiday rising to 88.6%, compared to the 96.0% reached during the week before the holiday.
Peak Day
Workers in all buildings returned to the office after taking time off during the Thanksgiving-day week, with the 10 City Back to Work Barometer peaking on Wednesday, at 64.4%, only a point shy of the post-pandemic record set in September. Dallas TX experienced its peak day, as well as a post-pandemic high, on Tuesday, at 74.9%. Peak occupancy rose to 63.0% the Tuesday after the holiday, compared to 64.0% the week prior to the holiday.
Weekly Average
Average weekly office occupancy bounced back after the Thanksgiving-day holiday, jumping 12.1 points to 54.7%, just 1.1 points shy of the record high average set the week before the holiday. Dallas TX reached a record high for that city, 64.6%, a rise of nearly 15 points from the holiday week. Only Austin TX experienced a greater bounce back, rising 19.2 points to 74.2% occupancy, about 4 tenths shy of a record high for that city.
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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