STUDY: Nearly 80% of Manhattan Office Workers Not Returning Full-Time

The Partnership for New York City said major Manhattan employers expect less than half of their employees to be back to the office by summer's end.

Some of New York City's largest Manhattan-based employers are already planning for the future of post-COVID work, and it seems the majority have abandoned the idea of pre-COVID on-site work demands -- at least on a full-time basis. A slim 22 percent of the island's big employers will require all their workers to return to the oiffice full-time when they eventually head back, according to a Partnership for New York City survey. That's especially rough news for Midtown and the Financial District.

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What's even more telling is that 66 percent of survey respondents said they plan to a adopt a hybrid model of days in the office and days at home, with another nine percent saying they won't require workers to return to the office at all, and a noteworthy four percent reporting the decisions would be taken on a case-by-base basis.

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"Companies are growing wiser about their spending during, and eventually after the pandemic," explains Yossef Hermon, a Manhattan real estate broker with a focus on the Midtown market. "While they're not all jumping ship from the city, leases are coming up all the time, and there's no reason to spend on large footprints in the city if your employees aren't coming in. We're seeing a lot of downsizing, like companies keeping their addresses and offices, but turning half their floors back over, or eliminating at least 30 to 40 percent of their leased square footage. They're also renegotiating those old leases to save anywhere from 10 to 30 percent on their monthly expenditures."

The nonprofit organization conducted their survey of the city's large employers just a few weeks ago at the end of February, so the results are recent and extremely telling of the city's volatile future. It was the fourth of such polls conducted over the last year by the group, and clearly indicated that employers are simply in no hurry to go back ot old ways.

Survey respondents said they expect just 45 percent of Manhattan's roughly 1 million office workers to be back to the office by this September, signaling a prolonged downturn for the New York office space encomony.

"I'm worried about my own future," Helly Yanak, a local street coffee vendor in Manhattan told us. "When there is nobody in the offices, or less people, that means I'm not selling as many coffees in the morning, there's no rush for my bagels and doughnuts and other foods. My business has almost crashed, and I don't see it improving so much. My survival is based on the people coming and going from their offices."

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Hermon says the time is now for companies unable to give up large office footprints. "To be transparent, the deals are great right now, and if you need a large office space and thought you couldn't afford Manhattan, you probably can now. It'll be interesting to see if light manufacturing and textiles come back into the city. They were pushed out almost entirely about 20 years ago, but there may be room for a comeback now. And those large offices in Jersey City, Hoboken, and Newark? They may eye a move to Manhattan now if they're going to end up paying around the same. The city still has some panache and luster, and has value for the right companies. Overall though, work-from-home is going to stay for a long time. There's just no tangible reason yet for things to fully go back to the old ways."

Did you work in Manhattan and leave because of the pandemic? We'd love to hear your story in the comments section below, and what your plans are for the near future.