Remote Work is Dying in the Bay Area — and Tech is Leading the Charge

A new poll reveals that 63 percent of Bay Area workers are now back at the office full time, reports Ethan Baron in The Mercury News. This stands in contrast to last year, when half of the region’s workers were working fully in person. 

According to Baron, “Remote and hybrid work schedules have played a villain’s role in the struggles of Bay Area downtowns, also hollowed out by society’s shift from in-person to online shopping.” Now, company executives are citing innovation, collaboration, and company culture as reasons to bring workers back. Amazon has asked its workers to return five days a week, while some companies, like Google and Apple, maintain hybrid policies. 

Despite this, the office vacancy rate in the Bay Area is 24 percent, higher than the 19 percent national average, and many workers say they prefer to continue working remotely. If regional transit service takes a hit due to funding cuts (temporarily staved off by a $750 million state loan), it could further discourage workers from wanting to make the commute. 

Paradoxically, the total number of visitors to downtown San Jose has grown by 7 percent since 2019. “Downtown Oakland saw just a 2% increase this year, to 3.6 million visitors, while downtown San Francisco received a 5% bump.”