Manhattan’s Office Attendance Stats Have Stabilized

The share of Manhattan employees that have returned to the office appear to have stabilized at 72% of pre-pandemic attendance, according to the Partnership for New York City, which surveyed more than 130 major Manhattan office employers between April 19 and May 6, 2024.

Responses indicate that 56% of Manhattan office workers are at their workplace on an average weekday, compared with 78% of workers that were in their Manhattan offices on the average weekday prior to the pandemic.

Diving into these numbers unearthed some interesting trends. The industry with the highest average daily attendance was the real estate sector at 83%, followed by law (63%) and financial services (60%). Also, larger employers tended to have lower in-office rates pre-pandemic; as a result, current office attendance is 77% of pre-pandemic conditions at companies with more than 5,000 employees, compared to 67% among firms with fewer than 500 employees.

Current return-to-office rates are not significantly different from the Partnership’s September 2023 survey findings, which found 58% of employees were in the office on the average weekday.

The survey also found that 38% of employers expect to increase their New York City headcount over the next 12 months compared with 10% that expect to reduce it, while the majority (52%) expect to maintain their current workforce. In contrast to the trend of high-profile tech layoffs nationwide in recent years, 71% of surveyed tech companies said they expect to increase their New York City headcount over the next year.