New York City’s post-pandemic recovery has slowed as just a small fraction of Manhattan’s office workers have returned to work in-person, according to a survey published Monday.
The findings — compiled by the Partnership for New York City, which represents the Big Apple’s largest employers — estimated 62% of Manhattan’s office employees worked remotely during a typical weekday in late April. And just 8% — or one in 12 — showed up to work in-person five days per week, the report shows.
“The longer people worked remotely, the longer they wanted to continue to work remotely,” said Kathy Wylde, the CEO of the Partnership for New York City. “It’s called inertia. The longer people are doing one thing, the harder it is to get them to change.”
It’s a far more sluggish return to in-person work than the organization projected before the omicron variant of COVID-19 first swept through the city. A survey conducted in late October found nearly half of Manhattan’s office workers expected to be in the office by the end of January.
Predictions of a return to normalcy have proved inaccurate for more than a year. A March 2021 survey found employers expected about half of the borough’s office workers to be back in-person by last September.
About 78% of the city’s major employers expect a combination of remote and in-person work is here to stay, the survey found.
