Asia Workers Likely To Return To Office By Q1 2022
ASIA PACIFIC – Real estate consultancy Cushman & Wakefield (C&W) expects staff in the region to return to their workplace by March or April 2022, according to a recent report published on PlaceTech.
However, C&W pointed out that there’s a huge difference in the current back-to-office situation in different countries. For instance, while 96 percent of staff are back in the office in Greater China, merely 32 percent have done so for the rest of the region.
In some Asian nations like Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Japan, the authorities either request or mandate a percentage of staff to work from home, with the percentage ranging between 50 percent and 70 percent.
Cushman & Wakefield said Singapore, South Korea, and Japan are expected to be next in line to see a significant number of their employees return to the office.
In Australia, office occupancy levels are projected to begin to rising in February 2022 as the new school year starts, but the property consultancy thinks that occupancy will be lower than it was before the pandemic struck due to the prevalence of hybrid working arrangements.
In the United States, staff are expected to return to the office by January or February 2022.
As of mid-September, office attendance across 10 markets in the United States averaged 34 percent. Many firms there have delayed their return-to-office targets to January 2022 because of the more infectious Delta variant. Nonetheless, law firms and financial institutions are urging their workers to return to the office by the last quarter of this year.
Meanwhile, in Europe, employees are expected to return to the office by January 2022
Cushman & Wakefield noted that roughly 40 percent on average of staff are back in their workplace across 10 European cities, led by Prague at over 80 percent. On the other hand, the rate in London is just 30 percent.
Most firms in Europe are encouraging their workers to return by September or October 2021, though this differs from country to country. Law firms and financial institutions will likely lead the way in the next few months, while tech firms are more likely to wait until January 2022.
