Yesterday’s news of layoffs among some large organizations was a downer, so how about better news? Per SMB Group research in a survey done in July, about two-thirds of SMBs believe revenues will increase in the next fiscal year. Just six percent are expecting a decrease.
Let’s also consider a potpourri of interesting market data points.
Conversions of office buildings into apartments are increasing. Overall apartment conversions — including those of warehouses, hotels, and health care buildings — jumped 25% during 2020-2021, to about 28,000 units, compared to the prior two-year period before the pandemic, according to RentCafe. Conversions of office buildings jumped the most — by 43%, to 11,090 units. They make up the largest share of conversions.
I mentioned yesterday that the tech jobs market is good –, particularly in tech services. CompTIA’s latest data continues to back that up. The latest Jobs report marked the 23rd consecutive month of jobs growth, a healthy 28% higher than last year.
Amidst all this, per workplace technology specialist Robin’s Q3 2022 Hybrid Workplace Report, office attendance is up. But it’s not why you think – it’s seasonal. Employees travel to the office less in the summer when only 24% of office space is in use. They visit the office a little more in October (27%), then travel frequently to the office in early November (32%) before office use dips close to zero ahead of Thanksgiving and the winter holidays. Robin’s data indicated that office attendance was 10% in Q3 compared to Q2.
New data from Kastle systems tell us what days, too – Mondays and Fridays are the lowest occupancy dates, with Tuesdays and Wednesdays being the busy days.
And speaking of seasonal, more than 100,000 Americans missed work last month because of child-care problems, an all-time high that’s even greater than during the height of the pandemic, according to new data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. What happened? Sickness, be it flu, RSV, or Covid, collided with staffing shortages at schools and daycares.
Why do we care?
Slowly, ever so slowly, bosses are losing the battle to bring people back into the office. Landlords are repurposing properties as they can, and people are in demand generally, meaning employees still have much power, and those people control when and where they work. Don’t forget they’re people, too – they get sick and have issues with childcare that override other concerns.
So why do we care? This is all the justification for why the productivity layer,s and will remain a pretty hot space for a while.