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
Weekly average attendance in Class A+ buildings rose again last week, to a national average at 78.5%. This is approaching the highest average occupancy reported for this class of buildings in all of 2025 and so far in 2026, which was in the second week of January this year at 80.8%. The peak occupancy happened again on a Tuesday, and it was 92.5%, the highest peak occupancy since February 10th of this year
Peak Day
The 10-city Barometer reported the peak day last week as Tuesday, April 21st, with occupancy of 64.5% down just half a point since the prior Tuesday. However, this Tuesday number is still above the average of the peak days we have reported since the first of the year, which is 63.4%. Tuesday the 21st was reported as the peak day in seven of the ten cities, while Los Angeles, Dallas and Austin reported their peak on Wednesday the 22nd. Peak day occupancy is consistently running about 4.5% points higher this year than a similar time frame two years ago in 2024, according to our monthly average of the last four peak days.
Weekly Average
The 10-city Kastle Barometer weekly average was essentially unchanged this week from the prior week, coming in at just a tenth lower at 55.2%. The drop was mostly driven by a 3.4% downward change in Austin’s weekly average from 76.8% the prior week to 73.4% last week. Austin was the biggest mover of the 10 cities, largely offset in the national average by increases in Houston, up 0.5%, New York, also up 0.5%, and Los Angeles up 0.6%, Chicago up 0.4%, and San Francisco with an increase of 1.5% to 44% average occupancy. Six cities saw gains in occupancy, while three reported slight drops, along with Austin’s significant change. Austin weather did not seem to be a factor last week, typically humid, hot with some rainstorms. April is a very popular festival season which may have lured office workers away from their duties with the Austin Reggae Festival, the Fusebox Arts Festival, the ABC Kite Festival and even a comedy festival all happening during the week of the Barometer data collection.
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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