Austin and Dallas lead the country in workers back in the office

[ad_1]

Austin and Dallas lead the country when it comes to getting workers back into the office.

But it will likely be early 2022 before the majority of office workers get back to their desks, according to a new forecast from Cushman & Wakefield.

The commercial real estate company estimates that around 60% of global office workers were still at home in September because of the pandemic.

“It’s important to remember that before the pandemic, office buildings were never 100% occupied on any given day; 60% was generally the norm, ”said Kevin Thorpe, chief economist at Cushman & Wakefield, in the new report. “Today we are at 40% worldwide, but of course that varies a lot from city to city.

“Assuming there are no virus setbacks at this point in time, we will see that office buildings and cities will be supplied with energy again in early 2022.”

Austin led the country for workers at their desks in September, with just under half of the employees back in the office.

Dallas was second with around 45%.

Office employment in Dallas rose over 50% earlier this summer before the recent surge in COVID-19 infections sent workers home.

Companies that had planned to bring their employees back after Labor Day were scheduled by the end of this year or early 2022.

Around 40% of respondents said they expect to be back in the office immediately after having achieved herd immunity to the coronavirus through vaccines or infections.

According to Cushman & Wakefield, 32% of larger companies surveyed have mandated that their employees get vaccinated in order to return to work.

“We assume that new infections will be back at a lower level ahead of the delta by December 2021,” predict researchers from Cushman & Wakefield.

Only about a third of US office workers had returned by mid-September. Occupancy varies widely from over 40% in the major Texas metro to just 21% in San Francisco.

“Most companies hope to come back as soon as possible,” said David Smith of Cushman & Wakefield in a statement. “This is not a talk about never going back; It’s a conversation about when we can safely return to the office because almost all workers and employers have indicated that they want to return – more flexibility, yes, but they want to go back.

“And because of the increasing tour activity, we know that the demand is there – so it’s not about whether office buildings will be repopulated, but when,” he said. “The leading data point to the first quarter of 2022.”

[ad_2]