72% of office workers have left Manhattan

Don Surber Blog ^ | 11/12/2021

[SeekAndFind]

For a year and a half, New York City's communist mayor and the state's dumber-than-Fredo governor used covid to shove people around. They closed restaurants and forced people to wear masks. Crime rose as the Red Mayor promoted BLM lawlessness. And the Dumb Guv spread covid into nursing homes and killed 15,000 grannies.

That's right. 1 in 20 (5%) of the covid deaths last year were due to Andrew Cuomo's order that nursing homes take in covid patients.

The press hailed him as a hero.

But there's a new governor and in a couple of months Gotham will have a new mayor. But the damage has been done. Employers have discovered Zoom. What was temporary is now permanent.

Kathryn Wylde, who heads Partnership for New York City, told WABC, "Of Manhattan's 1 million office workers, 28% are back. And of those, only 8% are back full time."

That means 72% of those jobs are gone for now. The survey showed 43% of the jobs are gone permanently.

That's 720,000 people aren't buying coffee in the morning and lunch in the afternoon. The covid rules hit bars and restaurants. Politicians thought it was temporary. Nope. They're gone, victims of Democrat policies that failed to stop the spread of covid or even flatten the curve.

The WABC story said, "Governor Kathy Hochul is urging New York City employers to bring their workers back now, after a new survey showed the majority of people are still working remotely."

The story said, "When employers were asked to rank factors to which they attribute the slow return to the office, the status of COVID ranked as the largest factor, with 48% citing it as the primary concern.

"Hochul says short of banning Zoom, which she says she won't do, people need to get back to work."

When a Democrat promises she won't do something, bet on her doing it eventually.

There is some hope in that survey as that 28% showing up for work at least three days a week is expected to rise to 57% by the end of January.

While 48% of the employers said this was driven by covid, NYC and the state pose other problems.

Crime rose during the communist reign of Mayor De Blasio. The Knockout Game has the young randomly striking people in their 40s and older.

Taxes and rents also are a problem.

And the new governor is a Karen.

AP reported last month, "Workers facing layoffs in New York state now have a right to ask their employers instead to trim all workers’ hours and have unemployment insurance help offset the losses for everyone, under a law that Gov. Kathy Hochul signed Saturday."

If the work can be done with Zoom, why stay in a New York where companies are subjected to the whims of anti-capitalist legislators and governors?

Rent a post box in Poca, get a business license, and Zoom to your heart's content.

***

[Caipirabob]

There is a coming collapse of Commercial real estate prices coming and the Biden Regime is doing everything to hold it back but the damn break.

Spot on correct. Once the savings in maintenance and utilities are realized, especially with rising electrical costs, why would any business with a well developed IT infrastructure have a physical office space outside of major events/meetings? There isn't a reason, since the productivity issue was resolved over the past 22 month and for the most part, productivity was better than average.

[21twelve]

“Zoom and Skype transmit over the internet, and thus raise all sorts of privacy concerns.”

Interesting comment. Although I imagine it would take numerous hacks for companies to figure out that talking about their next invention or purchase over Zoom will stop them from doing so.

All that stuff is discussed in emails as well.

[firebrand]

Residential rents are rising rapidly, though, mostly because while the Hamptonites were out of town some smart people came in from out of state and snapped a lot of stuff up.

People miss New York once they get used to it. It’s boring anywhere else. Buried alive.

The businesses will revive as well, as long as we don’t have another wave of infection from the labs. Right now there are a lot of empty storefronts. We just have to keep our public health top-notch.

[exnavy]

The big apple has worms.

[knarf]

There goes every "CHEERS" bar where everybody knows your name.

Can you imagine Cliff and Norm carrying on via ZOOM ?

[Cboldt]

Follow the science, ban gravity and friction.

[P.O.E.]

Now that you mention it - working remotely allows companies to “outsource” their overheads. Instead of paying for office insurance, heat, electricity, etc., they are paid by remote workers in their own homes.

[Covenantor]

“A new report published by AHLA and Kalibri Labs in August 2021 projects that the hotel industry will finish 2021 down by more than $59 billion in business travel revenue from 2019.”

“This report indicates New York City, NY may see these revenues decrease by 88% compared to 2019.”

“In 2020, the hotel industry lost nearly $49 billion in business travel revenue.”

“Business travel includes corporate, group, government, and other commercial categories. Business and group travel are the industry’s largest source of revenue and are not expected to reach pre-pandemic levels until 2024.”

“As of August 17, 2021, people 12 and older in NYC are required to show proof they have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine authorized for emergency use by the U.S. FDA or WHO for Indoor dining, Indoor fitness, and Indoor entertainment.”

‘This new COVID-19 vaccine requirement is called the Key to NYC and applies to all staff at these locations.”

[metmom]

People miss New York once they get used to it. It’s boring anywhere else. Buried alive.

Some people, and it depends on what interests a person.

Personally, I don’t miss the noise, the smells, the crowds, the ridiculous traffic and that just from leaving a smaller city.

I like being able to see the Milky Way at night, an eagle soaring overhead, hearing the owls at night, watching the turkeys and deer wander through our yard.

Country living is hardly boring.

Life is what you make it. If you’re bored, it’s you, not your circumstances to blame.

[kanawa]

I like being able to see the Milky Way at night, an eagle soaring overhead,
hearing the owls at night, watching the turkeys and deer wander through our yard.

👍🏽👍🏽

[Bernard]

Opening a restaurant or other service outlet in Manhattan is like planning to open a chain of gasoline stations in Manhattan.

Besides the coming commercial real estate implosion, most of the people who live in or near a major metro area do so because of commuting distance to work. "If I can telecommute from a decent neighborhood, why am I living here? It's not like I need to worry about access to highways or train stations."

The Ring Theory of urban development works both ways. Time to build that "Escape From New York" wall before the cockroaches all move out.

[mosaicwolf]

ZOOM out of the city. I like that!

[SamAdams76]

My main office is on Lexington Ave in mid-town. I go there about once a week and it is a ghost town. Basically only the managers both to show up and even then only once or twice a week. Many of the employees have not been back since March of 2020.

We occupy two floor of space and there are rows and rows of empty cubicles. Supposedly we are calling them all back to work in January - will be interesting to see how that goes. I think people have gotten too used to working at home.

Curiously there is still a lot of construction going on around us.

[cgbg]

I live way out in the country—cannot stand the city.

Over the years I turned down many job offers in NYC—I just refused to have anything to do with the place.

My stress level is way too high when I am there—even when there are no specific issues.

The closest I ever came to dying was driving on the Cross Bronx Expressway—going about 55 mph—and the car in front of me stopped on a dime. I had no time to look, just had to change lanes without looking—was a millisecond from getting hit from behind.

I also remember the slush on the streets next to the sidewalk in the winter—and just the filth everywhere.

That does not even count the creepy and dangerous looking and acting people all over the place.

I will take my chances with porcupines and bears....

[Steven Tyler]

Agreed.

Big Cities held an advantage cause of a concentration of specialized professionals.
Legal/Accounting/Marketing/Sales/Design/Banking/Engineering, all nearby and accessable for meetings and collaboration.

Now, all of that talent does not need to be in a 10 block area.

[Steven Tyler]

Marxists and Communists are laser focused on their end goal, so much so they are blind to reality around every corner

[ealgeone]

I think the best thing to come out of this wuhan mess is WFH.

For many managers WFH is a mindset they are slowly coming to understand.

If your company is spread out across the country you were probably already using zoom or skype. My company was. Except we were in the office sitting at our desks.

Now, the bulk are at home sitting at our desks doing the same work....except we're at home.

For those companies pretending to be green this keeps cars off the road, reduces the need for power for the buildings, etc.

However, I do think the Chamber of Commerces are pushing the companies to get people back in the office so they will buy coffee and lunch in town. I know they're taking an economic hit.

I imagine business realtors are also worried....office space just isn't that appealing any longer threatening their jobs.

Most white collar jobs can be done while WFH.....if management has the insight and willingness to embrace the cultural shift.

[ealgeone]

+1

[allendale]

Suspect that despite the subsidies, commercial and residential real estate values will decline in NYC long before the Biden bucks run out. Construction activity will also slow considerably. The private sector will respond to economic realities long before government realizes what is happening. The Democrats will do all they can to coerce companies to return. No doubt they will scream that these companies are racist for abandoning central, unneeded, urban locations. Yet they will plow ahead with their anti-commercial taxing schemes such as “congestion pricing”. Economic rule of thumb. Government subsidies ( such as the current Biden bucks) only contort and disrupt markets but do not change economic trends and ultimately fail miserably.

[cgbg]

if management has the insight and willingness to embrace the cultural shift.

Correct--it is the difference between measuring process and measuring results.

Good management could not care less about process--they are relentlessly focused on results.

Stupid managers have no clue what results they want, how to measure the results even if they knew what they wanted, and how to properly give people incentives for getting the desired results.

Of course the stupid managers want people back in the office!