Jobs and the Future of Work

Banking has higher office attendance rates than any other sector

FILE PHOTO: A worker sits at his desk in an office building in Washington, U.S., August 3, 2018. REUTERS/Brian Snyder/File Photo

A new survey looks at office attendance across mutiple countries and sectors. Image: REUTERS/Brian Snyder/File Photo

Martin Armstrong
Data Journalist, Statista
Share:
Our Impact
What's the World Economic Forum doing to accelerate action on Jobs and the Future of Work?
The Big Picture
Explore and monitor how Future of Work is affecting economies, industries and global issues
A hand holding a looking glass by a lake
Crowdsource Innovation
Get involved with our crowdsourced digital platform to deliver impact at scale
Stay up to date:

Future of Work

  • A new survey suggests that office attendance across various sectors in 13 countries remains well below pre-pandemic levels.
  • Attendance peaks in the middle of the week, with around no more than a third of employees in the office.
  • Banking was the sector with the highest average attendance rates.

The much-awaited/dreaded (insert as appropriate) return to the office is far from complete, and in a large number of companies and sectors is unlikely to ever really take place.

According to a June/July survey by Advanced Workplace Associates in 13 countries, 13 sectors, 28 organizations and 79 offices (representing 77,410 employees), "average attendance in offices is just 26 percent, with peaks in the middle of the week of no more than a third of employees in the office." As this infographic highlights, the difference in attendance varies widely from sector to sector.

Banking reported the highest average attendance rates with a total of 47 percent, while at the other end of the scale is logistics and tech. The latter has generated media attention over the last few months. Giants of the industry such as Google, Apple and Tesla have each been struggling to engineer a solution which simultaneously satisfies the companies' desire to get their employees back at their desks, as well as the seemingly large shares of their workforces that would rather maintain the new status quo of remote or hybrid working.

Return to the office? Don't bank on it
Office attendance remains low across many sectors. Image: Statista
Have you read?
Loading...
Don't miss any update on this topic

Create a free account and access your personalized content collection with our latest publications and analyses.

Sign up for free

License and Republishing

World Economic Forum articles may be republished in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Public License, and in accordance with our Terms of Use.

The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone and not the World Economic Forum.

Share:
World Economic Forum logo
Global Agenda

The Agenda Weekly

A weekly update of the most important issues driving the global agenda

Subscribe today

You can unsubscribe at any time using the link in our emails. For more details, review our privacy policy.

This is how businesses should approach reskilling for AI

Kathy Diaz

October 14, 2024

About us

Engage with us

  • Sign in
  • Partner with us
  • Become a member
  • Sign up for our press releases
  • Subscribe to our newsletters
  • Contact us

Quick links

Language editions

Privacy Policy & Terms of Service

Sitemap

© 2024 World Economic Forum