Return To Office Hits 5-Year High In U.S. — NYC Leads Major Cities
July 2025 saw the greatest number of U.S. employees returning to the office since the pandemic began. Still office visits nationally have not yet reached pre-pandemic rates, according to a new monthly report from the Placer.ai Nationwide Office Building Index.
Office visits in New York City are now officially more than 1% higher than their pre-pandemic rate in July 2019, but office visits in Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Boston, and Denver are still about 30% below what they were at that time.
Nationwide, office visits remain over 20% below pre-pandemic levels, but they are nearly 50% higher than they were in June 2021.
This pattern of returning to the office comes as more U.S. workforces mandate in-person work. Full-time in-office requirements among Fortune 500 companies jumped to 24% in Q2 2025 from 13% in 2024, and President Trump also ordered federal employees back to the office five days a week in January, despite many federal workers having agreed to remote work contracts.
In-person is also extending to the job interview: Artificial intelligence is prompting more companies to request in-person interviews, as some candidates have used the technology to cheat on interview questions.
In-person interview requests among recruitment firm Coda Search/Staffing in Dallas have increased from 5% in 2024 to 30% this year.