San Francisco (KGO) – San Francisco finally sees some progress to get people back to the office after the pandemic.
Five hours in the city of San Francisco means more? Happy Hour – at least for those who go to the office.
“If it’s 5 o’clock here, we like to have fun,” said engineer Joseph Camajini and his colleagues. “We are at the office at least three days a week. We want to raise that to four to support the community and be part of the scene in the city center.”
People who work in the center of San Francisco say that it happens a little more at their Happy Hour place.
“You can tell a big difference with a year ago,” said Brandon Boyle. “There is a good energy and atmosphere in the center of SF.”
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Boyle does international tax and goes to the office one to two days a week.
“We are a progressive office. There is no mandatory return to the office,” said Boyle.
According to new data from mobile phones released from location tracking company Placer.AI, the office visits of San Francisco fell by 34.2% compared to 2019 in July. SF’s profit surpassed Los Angeles and Denver in July. The city is now third from the bottom of the list of employees who are back to work.
“It is not a huge bump, but it is constant progress,” says Jeff Bellisario, executive director of Bay Area Council Economic Institute.
The good news is that San Francisco has posted an increase of 21.6% on an annual basis of office foot traffic for July 2025-the strongest performance of every city followed by Placer.ai.
More: SF Burgemeester Daniel Lurie orders city workers to return to the office 4 days a week: ‘A new era’
“You hear more and more every day. More employers who go to the office for two to three days. More and more questions and demand that employees are there,” said Bellisario.
“I am in the office three days a week,” said Emma Boyle who works for a technology company in the center of SF. “I am a designer. I really like collaboration. So I think it is good to work in the office.”
“I am on a four -day one -day at home,” said Danielle Frances who works for a law firm in the city center. She would rather have worked remotely for at least one day. “If I could work from home five days a week, I would do that.”
ABC7 News asked her if she would be willing to return to the office five days a week.
“I don’t know how I once did this 20 years ago with three children, try to get to work on time,” said Frances.
More: SF Burgemeester Daniel Lurie talks about how SF works after 6 months
In the meantime, some say that the artificial intelligence tree is strengthening the return to the office.
“Many of those big players indicate that they want to be in San Francisco. They want a personal experience in San Francisco,” said Bellisario.
Next week it is expected that mayor Daniel Lurie’s return-to-office guideline will come into effect. The plan to bring city workers back to the office four days a week had to start in April, but was postponed after reaching a deal with two large trade unions.
“I think it would be fun if people came to work more,” said Emma Boyle. “I love the city. I would like to see more people in the city center treat each other during work and after work.”
The recovery of San Francisco is coming and the future is still wide open.
“The question is now” Are we coming back to 2019 to 2020 levels of office use? ” Is that normal?
“San Francisco, we’re doing great. We’re going to come there,” said Jonathan Mulat.
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