RTO made its biggest post-pandemic comeback in July

Business Insider

3 days ago

The office commute is in its comeback era.
Data from Placer.ai, the location intelligence and foot traffic data software firm, found that July set a post-pandemic record high for office attendance. While in-office work hasn't yet returned to pre-pandemic levels, most Fortune 100 employees are now subject to full-time in-office work mandates, the report found.
The Placer.ai Nationwide Office Building Index analyzes foot traffic data from about 1,000 commercial office buildings across the country. The latest report found that office visits in July of this year were up 10.7% compared to July 2024.
Office visits in July 2025 were down 21.8% compared to July 2019, shortly before the coronavirus pandemic forced office shutdowns around the world the following March.
Two cities, however, are bouncing back. Employees in New York City, driven largely by workers in the financial sector who are subject to strict RTO requirements, saw 1.3% office foot traffic growth in July 2025 compared to 2019 — a first since Placer.ai began tracking these trends.
Placer.ai found Miami came close behind, posting just a 0.1% lag compared to its 2019 foot traffic. Atlanta and Dallas also saw more in-office foot traffic than the national average compared to 2019 levels.
San Francisco saw the greatest gains year-over-year, with 21.6% visit growth compared to 2024.
So if you haven't been called back to the office yet, you're increasingly in the minority.
Major employers from Amazon to Zoom have either implemented or ratcheted up their return-to-office requirements this year.
The losers in the RTO push appear to be working moms with young kids. The Washington Post reported this week that the trend is causing mothers in particular to leave the labor force in droves, erasing their pandemic-era gains in the workplace.
The office may never again be what it was before 2020 — but for millions of workers, it's once again where the workday begins.