CHICAGO, August 20, 2026 — New research shows that employees who’ve been working at home since the pandemic are returning to their corporate offices at a significantly accelerated rate this year, a positive development for business-and-industry operators and downtown restaurants.
The data released this week by the traffic-tracking researcher Placer.ai shows that the number of employees commuting into work rose 6% during the first half of 2026. That compares with an increase of just 1.9% in January through June of 2025.
Still, even with that higher increase, the count of employees working in their companies’ offices still lags the pre-pandemic 2019 figure by 31.2%, Placer.ai reported.
However, the researcher warned that the occupancy figures vary greatly by geography and days of the week. New York City, Miami, Denver and Atlanta have moved much closer to their pre-pandemic rates, while Washington, D.C., and Denver are still inching toward their 2019 office occupancy levels.
The most dramatic acceleration came in West Coast markets, Placer.ai noted, but Los Angeles and San Francisco still lag urban centers elsewhere in bringing workers back to their corporate desks.
Even within a market where returns are pronounced, such as New York City, are seeing considerable geographic variation. The city’s downtown financial center is far outstripping other sections of the five boroughs in bringing employees back to their desks.
Similarly, occupancy rates fluctuate widely by day of the week, a result of the hybrid schedules many employers are setting for their white-collar employees. The number of office workers returning to their desks on a Tuesday is only 19.3% behind the national average for the day during the first half of 2019, Placer.ai found.
The day employees are most likely to forego their commutes and work at home is Friday, when the tally of workers who return to their offices fell 50% below the 2019 benchmark.
Mondays are also popular stay-at-home days, with a 34.7% drop from a typical Monday during the first half of 2019.
Food-away-from-home businesses whose clienteles consist largely of downtown office workers have been squeezed since governments at all levels advised consumers at the start of the pandemic to work at home. Nearly 4 of 5 office workers heeded the advice during the first half of 2021, the first full year of the global pandemic, according to Placer.ai.