Americans Work Remotely as Employees in Europe and Asia Return to the Office

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A great divergence has become noticeable in return-to-office habits, as half of American workers still work remotely compared to their counterparts in Asia and Europe who have largely returned to the office.

Offices in the United States are still at about half capacity three years after the onset of the pandemic, with occupancy rates at 40–60 percent of pre-2020 levels, varying by month or location, according to the The Wall Street Journal, citing data from JLL, a property-services firm.

In Europe and the Middle East, offices are at 70–90 percent levels, while Asia has occupancy rates of 80–110 percent, as more people are in the office in some cities today than before the pandemic, said JLL.

None of the major American cities tracked by JLL have achieved a high rate of return compared to Europe and Asia so far.

“The United States has borne the brunt of this,” Phil Ryan, director of city futures at JLL, told The Wall Street Journal.

Americans tend to more fond of remote work, compared to their counterparts overseas, and are less likely willing to return to an office environment.

Surveys suggest that larger average living spaces, longer commutes, and a tight labor market are some of the reasons why Americans spend less time in the office than their peers in other regions.

Americans Enjoy Working From Home Compared to Peers Overseas

In Asia, for example, cramped living arrangements tend to have an effect on work habits, while Americans are more likely to live in spacious homes with less domestic distractions.

In cities like Hong Kong and Singapore, most people live in small apartments, sometimes with their extended families, making working from home less efficient.

The greater proportion of American office workers living in the suburbs, leading to longer commutes combined with unsufferable traffic jams, has encouraged many to work at home.

On the other hand, mass transit systems in Europe and Asia are often more efficient and less prone to delays compared to what exists in most American metropolitan areas, making commuting from home more easy.

The tech industry, which is disproportionally one of the biggest employers in major U.S. metro areas, also tends to be far more tolerant of remote work.

America’s tighter labor market is another explanation for the trend toward remote work, as the dire need for workers has forced firms to look afar and hire remotely.

Ryan noted that although European companies are also dealing employee shortages, American companies are facing a more serious labor problem.

The U.S. unemployment rate is is current at 3.4 percent, which is about half the European Union’s unemployment rate of 6.1 percent.

International Work Habits See a Great Divergence Since the Pandemic

Meanwhile, WeWork, the company that offers urban co-working spaces, has been hit hard by the new work trend, reported The Wall Street Journal.

The company reported that 72 percent of its spaces in New York were leased as of the fourth quarter of 2022, compared with 80 percent in Paris, 81 percent in London, and 82 percent in Singapore.

The opposing trends in work habits in Europe and in Asia have benefited commercial landlords in those regions more than their counterparts in America, as cities outside the United States have bounced back at a faster pace.

Cities in Asia and in Europe saw most of their workers back at their desks by 2021 and 2021, said JLL, which has allowed government finances and the service sector in those metro areas to recover quicker.

Tokyo, Seoul, and Singapore saw occupancy rates of 75 percent by 2022, while Paris and Stockholm both saw similar numbers, according to JLL.

US Cities See a Slow Recovery With Fewer Office Commuters

This has had a direct impact on the economic recovery of major American cities from the pandemic, which were already suffering from a glut of empty office space long before the pandemic.

Many American cities have had an excess of available commercial space for years, after a decades-long construction boom which led to high vacancy rates. This has led some local municipal governments to encourage the transformation of office blocks into apartments to revitalize their business districts.

Major U.S. companies were already putting fewer people on each floor than firms in European and Asia well before 2019.

Since the pandemic, the lack office workers and loss of commuters have undermined the finances of major cities like New York and San Francisco, as service industry businesses like shops and restaurants in those metropolitan areas have seen a major downturn in foot traffic due to fewer office employees in the workplace.

For example, many of the tens of thousands of workers who lost their jobs in Manhattan in the retail, accommodation, and food services sectors during the pandemic never got their jobs back after the recovery due to their employers’ dependence on office commuters.

Other business districts in cities across the United States are struggling as well, especially those which financially depend on commercial real estate property taxes, while the drop in commuters has hit the revenues of public transit authorities.