With the COVID pandemic mostly behind them, more workers are returning to the office.
By early next year, 65% of office workers should be back at their desk for a majority of the week, according to a new forecast from commercial property firm Jones Lang LaSalle.
At the end of September, about 47% of office workers had returned nationwide, JLL analysts say in a new report.
The office reentry rate was higher in the Dallas area at almost 54%
Three Texas cities — Austin, Houston and Dallas — lead the country in office worker occupancy, JLL found.
“Some of the things that have made us attractive as a state and a region from a business perspective are drivers of that,” said Blake Shipley, JLL managing director. “In Dallas — in particular south of LBJ Freeway — office buildings feel substantially occupied.
“It’s the suburban markets that are all over the board.”
Major employers have been mandating more in-office work since Labor Day and are expected to continue this push into early next year.
But in many cases, workers won’t be at their desks five days a week.
“Different businesses with different objectives are landing in different places,” Shipley said.
Most office-using businesses plan to let employees continue to do some work from home.
“Hybrid is here to say,” said JLL managing director Cribb Altman. “One thing COVID has taught us is people can be productive from home.
“But there is still a purpose of the office from a collaborative standpoint.”
Many Dallas-area office tenants have used this year to upgrade or redesign their employee spaces to encourage workers to return. “You have to give employees a reason to come back,” Altman said. “The environment the building creates is important.”
Dallas-Fort Worth office leasing has rebounded in the last 18 months as many companies that put off making lease decisions have moved ahead with workplace plans.
“In a lot of cases, it doesn’t necessarily have a large impact on the office footprint itself,” Shipley said. “It has a lot to say about how they design and use space.
“It doesn’t necessarily mean a wholesale downsize.”
