Downtown Memphis still working on comeback from pandemic
MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — Downtown is trying to stage a pandemic comeback, but numbers show it’s still a work in progress.
The area is vibrant sporadically, with presses of people and lines at restaurants for evening events and some lunch shifts, but the number of workers is down from pre-pandemic levels.
In 2019, before the pandemic began, Memphis had an adult, daytime worker population of 47,337 people. The Downtown Memphis Commission is in the process of determining the current number through an online survey that will close in mid-December.
Of the 2,000 responses it has received, more than 40% report working full-time out of the office. Those people were in the office before the pandemic.
Nationally, available statistics seem to bear out that workers are slowly returning to the office, though not at the full-time pre-pandemic number of hours.
Forbes reported in September that office usage in 10 major metro areas was at about 50% of pre-pandemic levels and that the percentage might actually be higher because the data did not include many large real estate owners.
But while in the office, it’s not a 9-to-5 Monday-Friday return, which seems to be a thing of the past at least for now. Data results showed that in Manhattan, for example, fewer than 10% of employees were in the office five days a week.
“We were interested in discovering how the return to work might be impacting our Downtown workforce and our daytime economy,” said Paul Young, DMC president and CEO.
Thousands of employees are working hybrid schedules, including nearly 1,500 AutoZone employees at the Downtown store support center. AutoZone expects staff to be in the office three days a week.
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