This spring as the pandemic raged across most of the country, offices shut down at unprecedented rates and employees began working from home. Now as conditions are slowly moderating in many areas -- though increasing in others -- workers are returning to their offices and nowhere more so than in Dallas.
In a new study released earlier this fall, Dallas led the nation in the return rate back to in-office status with 36% of all workers back. As such it is significantly above the national average in the ten largest cities in the country, which is about 23% according to research from Kastle Systems.
“It leads the list of cities and is more than three times as open as New York, the lowest city on the barometer,” a spokesperson for Kastle said of Dallas.
At its worst, office occupancy in Dallas had dropped to less than 12% in April in the first weeks of the pandemic in Texas. As Dallas has returned so have other cities in the state, including Austin now at 30% and Houston at 23%.
How much further this goes remains a big question. A study from Zippia.com reported 63% of workers said they preferred working remotely on a permanent basis, an ominous sign for the return-to-the-office movement.