As the delta variant surge begins to wind down, more employees are heading back to the office, reaching a new pandemic high, The Wall Street Journal reported Oct. 12.
Children heading back to school and the end of the summer holiday season has meant that more workers are voluntarily returning to in-person work. There has also been an increase in organizations requiring workers to return.
Kastle Systems, a company that tracks access card swipes, reported that on Labor Day week, around 31 percent of workers in 10 major cities were back in offices. On the week of Oct. 8, that number had risen to 36 percent.
Companies in the financial sector and security have been some of the "most adamant about getting people back," Mark Ein, chair of Kastle Systems, told the Journal. BlackRock and Lionsgate are among some companies that set a return date in the next month. Some companies are allowing flexible, remote working to continue indefinitely and others, including Google and Wells Fargo, have pushed back reopening plans till 2022.