The state of RTO in 2025 by the numbers

It can feel like remote work is disappearing as more companies return to five-day, in-person workweeks.

But in-office work hasn’t made that much of a comeback in the last two years. Last month, office visits across the US were 32.2% below March 2019 levels, just a slight change from being down 35.9% in March 2024 and 37.9% in March 2023, according to data from location analytics platform Placer.ai.

The biggest change with in-office visits happened during the height of the pandemic, when a drop of 78.9% in March 2021 from the March 2019-level changed to 53.4% in March 2022 as more people returned to physical work locations.

What this data showcases is a steady return to the office and not a return to pre-pandemic levels, R.J. Hottovy, Placer.ai’s head of analytical research, told HR Brew.

“I don’t think we’re ever going to quite get back to work pre-pandemic. I think that there’s been structural changes,” Hottovy said. “A good portion of the population works from home more and some sort of hybrid work model works [for them] as well.”

As companies steadily return in-person, some major cities are leading the charge, the Placer.ai data found. Offices in New York City are only down 11.4% from their pre-pandemic level, while offices in Miami are closing the gap at 17.3% and Atlanta offices are down 29.3%.

However, offices in other big cities like Chicago and San Francisco are nowhere near their pre-pandemic levels with office visits both down 44.6%. Cities with slower office returns, like Chicago and San Francisco, had more employees move away during the pandemic, Hottovy said. While New York also has had employees depart since 2020, he explained that it still leads office returns because many industries with RTOs, like financial services, are headquartered there.

“The migration and the dominant occupation in that market are really bigger factors than anything else driving the office [returns] at a local level,” he said.