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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Occupancy Rises Across Cities After Weeks of Holiday and Weather Disruptions
The weekly average peak rose over five points to 61% on Tuesday this past week, as workers returned to the office in larger numbers after weeks of holiday and weather interruptions — especially throughout Texas. The weekly average low across all cities was Friday at 32.4% occupancy. Peak occupancy in Austin, Texas increased to 73.4% on Tuesday. Several other cities saw increases in peak occupancy as well. Philadelphia — with the lowest occupancy of any city on the Barometer — had a peak of 49.8% on Wednesday.
Average occupancy rose across Texas as well. In Austin, Texas, average occupancy rose more than 14 points to 62.8%, while in Houston, occupancy rose more than 29 points to 55.1%. Across all cities, the weekly average occupancy was 50.8%, according to Kastle’s 10-city Back to Work Barometer. This was over nine points higher than last 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’re ready to continue helping 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 workers return safely to their office buildings. We have a comprehensive system in place that integrates technology and new safety protocols — both for the building and tenant spaces. We’re keeping a close eye on this data as part of our KastleSafeSpaces framework, which we designed to help office buildings throughout workplace transitions.
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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