New figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics show the ongoing problems that office occupancy faces. According to the American Time Use Survey, in 2022, on workdays, 34% of employed persons did at least some of their work at home. About 69% of workers were at their workplace.
But workplaces encompass far more than offices and the overall numbers are representative of all workers. Further BLS explanation shows how office faces higher impact.
"Workers with higher levels of education were more likely to work at home than were those who had less education," the report said. "Among workers age 25 and over, 54 percent of employed persons with a bachelor's degree or higher performed some work at home on days worked, compared with 18 percent of those with a high school diploma and no college. Workers with a bachelor's degree or higher were equally likely to work on an average day as were those with a high school diploma and no college (68 percent)."
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There's a likely heavy tilt toward people whose workplace is an office, given the presence of higher education and observations of office occupancy rates.
Supporting suspicions of many business executives, those who worked at home did so for 5.4 hours compared to ones at the workplace did so for 7.9 hours. However, there are some common experiences that might play a role. One is that without the distractions of the office atmosphere, it might be that workers found they could complete work faster.
Still, any of this is likely cold comfort for business executives determined to bring people back to the office, as well as for office property owners and operators trying to determine how to handle companies that might decide to cut back on their office use.
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