The return of workers to Manhattan offices is happening more slowly than employers originally anticipated, a recent survey found.

Just 8% of Manhattan's 1 million office workers had returned to their buildings in mid-August, according a survey of employers conducted by the Partnership for New York City—a nonprofit organization dedicated to bolstering local commerce and innovation. Those major employers had projected in late May that 10% of their workforce would be back in the office by mid-August.

And uncertainty amid the COVID-19 pandemic has prompted those employers to roll back their expectations of how many workers will return to the office by year's end. In May, companies said they expected a third of workers to be back on site by the end of 2020. But that figure was just 26% by the August survey. Employers anticipate that just 54% of their workers will be back in offices by July 2021, it found. And more than a quarter of employers—28%—said they don't yet know their plans for returning to the office.