Hybrid work expected to reduce office demand by 9%

Businesses are slowly but consistently transitioning to a permanent hybrid work environment, according to a senior economist at Econometric Advisors.

A Spring 2022 survey from CBRE found that 73% of companies plan to have some sort of hybrid workplace policy. This trend will lead to a reduction in office space demand by 9% the economist said, as reported by GlobeSt.

Under the average hybrid work model, employees work about 24% less time in the office than they did before the pandemic and will spend about 1.6 days working from home each week in the future. Don’t expect a one-for-one reduction in space needs for employees, though.

Because office space will have to accommodate times of peak usage, employers can only remove about 55 desks for every 100 employees not present in the office.