Report: Where Bay Area cities rank in workers returning to the office

As many across the country gradually return to the office after pandemic shutdowns, office workers in Bay Area cities are lagging their counterparts in other cities. Only about one-third of workers in the San Jose and San Francisco metro areas have keyed into their office buildings, according to a study by Kastle. The company operates app, keycard and fob systems in 41,000 businesses in 47 states and crunched numbers from the top 10 U.S. metro areas.

The San Jose metro area averaged 34.2 percent average office occupancy in the last week of April, and the San Francisco metro area averaged 35.4 percent. Both cities were at the bottom of the list of cities studied.

At the top of the list of office occupancy were Austin at 60.4 percent and Houston at 55.7 percent.

The San Jose metro area was one of the biggest movers of the week, however, showing a 3.1 percent jump in workers returning compared to the week before. In fact, overall office occupancy in the U.S. broke a record in the last week of April reaching 43.4 percent. This is the highest percentage since March 2020.

Here’s a look at the top 10 metro areas:

Average office occupancy week of 4/27/22

1. Austin                                         60.4%
2. Houston                                     55.7%
3. Dallas                                         51.3%
4. Los Angeles                              40.9%
5. Washington D.C.                       40.4%
6. Chicago                                     39.8%
7. Philadelphia                              38.4%
8. New York                                   37.4%
9. San Francisco                           35.4%
10. San Jose                                  34.2%