More Workers Piled Into Offices In February, With Visits Up Almost 19%

The C-suite is starting to win the tug-of-war on getting employees back to the office so far in 2024.

Foot traffic at office buildings nationwide was 18.6% higher in February than during the same month last year, according to the latest Placer.ai data, which tracks foot traffic via cell phone data in some 1,000 office buildings across the U.S.

Office visits were still down 31.3% from February 2020, but the gap narrowed after January visitations were down 36.4% from 2020. The number of people Placer.ai tracked in office buildings still isn't at the level it was in November when visits were down 30.8% from 2019.

Miami and New York, both markets with a heavy finance presence, have become the leaders in the return-to-office movement, according to Placer.ai's data. Visits to Miami buildings were down just 9.4% compared to February 2020 and up 23% year-over-year. New York office traffic was down 14.5% compared to 2020 and up 21.7% year-over-year. 

Some companies, such as Boeing and UPS, have begun requiring employees to report to the office five days a week.

Even more major firms, like IBM, Google and JPMorgan Chase, have begun to crack down on hybrid work mandates to force employees to get to the office more often. Some 95% of corporate leaders say employees will suffer consequences for not abiding by hybrid work demands, with 80% of those leaders saying they will track attendance this year, according to a December survey of 800 business leaders by Resume Builder.

But a five-day in-office policy is unlikely to grow significantly. 27% of U.S. CEOs are focusing on maintaining hybrid work, compared to 4% who are looking to pull employees back to the office full time, according to The Conference Board’s 2024 C-Suite Outlook.