Getting America
Back to Work

Americans have been living through a period of intense uncertainty since March 2020 — struggling with an unprecedented pandemic and the economic distress it has caused.

 

To provide some clarity on the issues facing American businesses, Kastle is tracking access activity data from KastlePresence app, keycard, and fob usage in 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.

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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Get Weekly UpdatesYou can now track the Return to Work Barometer on the Bloomberg Terminal, available under {ALLX KASL<GO>}

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Peak Occupancy Hovers Above 60%

Peak office occupancy reached 60.7% on Tuesday this past week, rising 0.7 points from the previous Tuesday. Austin, Texas continues to lead with the highest peak day — hitting 75.3% occupancy on Tuesday. Last week’s low day was Friday at 33% across all cities tracked — which continues to bring down the weekly average occupancy. Monday is also consistently a lower occupancy day, coming in at 46.2% this past week.

The weekly average occupancy was 50.9% this past week, according to Kastle’s 10-city Back to Work Barometer. Office occupancy is following a consistent pattern as previous years with a decrease in the spring following highs in 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’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.

Click here for more information about the Barometer methodology and FAQ

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