Workers

 Axios - Many offices in America’s biggest cities aren't even two-thirds full on the busiest days of the weeks. Four years after pandemic lockdowns began, kids are back in school, brick-and-mortar retailers are thriving and travel has rebounded. But remote and hybrid work have lingered.  The shift away from working in offices has touched nearly all aspects of our lives —  from where people live, to how they structure their work-family balance to the way companies run. Offices could get even emptier: Nearly a third of leases are set to expire by 2026, The Atlantic notes.  Peak office days, typically Tuesdays or Wednesdays, can gauge the return-to-office momentum...Office occupancy is close to 62% on those high-attendance days, but falls to around 35% on Fridays, according to Kastle Systems swipe data from 10 big cities, including New York, L.A., Chicago and Houston... In some cities, developers are turning office buildings into apartments.

Output per worker increased by almost 300% between 1950 and 2018 in the U.S. The standard American workweek, meanwhile, has remained unchanged, at about 40 hours.T is paradox is especially notable in the U.S., where the average work year is 1,767 hours compared with 1,354 in Germany, a difference largely due to Americans’ lack of vacation time. More