Google "Remote Work Extended for 1 More Year"

Amazon and Facebook Extend... Manhattan Office Vacancy Rate in New York Expected to Reach 25% by Year-End

[Image source=AP Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Kwon Jae-hee] As the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19) shows signs of resurgence, companies have started to extend remote work once again. Some predict this will lead to an increase in office vacancies.

According to the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) on the 27th (local time), Google, the world's largest search engine company, has decided to extend remote work for its employees by another year until June next year. Sundar Pichai, Google's CEO, stated in a memo sent to employees that "for roles that do not require office attendance, employees will be allowed to voluntarily choose remote work until June 30 of next year."

Google is the first major information technology (IT) company in Silicon Valley to extend remote work for more than a year. It is expected that this trend will spread to other companies in the future.

Earlier, Amazon also announced that it would extend the remote work allowance period for employees due to COVID-19 until January 8 of next year. Facebook, which initially planned to return to normal office attendance from July, extended it until the end of this year.

Not only in the United States but also in Japan, the proportion of remote work is increasing due to the resurgence of COVID-19. Telecommunications giant NTT announced on the 28th that it would increase the remote work ratio from the current 50% to 70%. Among its 180,000 employees, except for about 31,000 field workers such as maintenance staff, all office workers will work remotely from home. Electronics company Hitachi Seisakusho also adopted working from home as the standard whenever possible even after the emergency declaration was lifted at the end of May.

As major companies extend remote work to prevent the spread of COVID-19, vacancy rates in major office districts are rising. International credit rating agency Moody's forecasted that the office vacancy rate in Manhattan, New York, will increase from 11.9% in the first half of this year to 25% by the end of the year.

According to WSJ, due to the impact of remote work, the number of office workers commuting to offices in Manhattan, New York, is less than one-tenth of what it was before the COVID-19 crisis. JP Morgan Chase has about 20% of its Manhattan office workforce attending in person. Microsoft (MS) stated, "There will be no employees commuting to the New York office before October at the earliest." According to CBRE, the world's largest commercial real estate services company, only 8% of the Manhattan offices they manage are being utilized.

However, there are also views that the office era will not completely disappear. WSJ reported, citing a CBRE official, that "the Manhattan office market supports New York's commercial districts such as restaurants and bars, so while office trends will change, they will not disappear entirely."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.