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
Office occupancy plunged during the holidays in all building classes, but even more so in Class A+ building. Peak Tuesday occupancy fell to about 31.7% in Class A+, and 28.1% in all buildings. For most buildings this represented a drop of about 50%, with Tuesday occupancy at all buildings before and after the holidays between 63% and 64%, A+ buildings dropped a full two thirds, from between previous highs of 93% and 94% Tuesday occupancy.
Peak Day
Workers returned to the office in numbers during the first week in January, peaking Tuesday, January 6 with the 10 City Back to Work Barometer hitting 63.6% that day, a rise of more than 35 points over the week prior that included winter holidays. The pattern was similar across all ten Barometer cities. Occupancy remained nearly as high the next day, at 63.4%, a rise of nearly 45 points over the prior Wednesday, which had been New Year’s Eve day.
Weekly Average
Weekly average attendance was also up, with the 10 City Back to Work Barometer reaching 48.8% this week, a rise of 28 points from the week prior. Yet, this remains well below the record highs set in early December, which exceeded 56%. Based upon prior years, we can expect a return to higher levels by late January.
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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