Over the past decade, startups migrated north from Silicon Valley to make San Francisco the country’s hottest tech hub. The streets of the city were bustling as throngs of -- mostly tech -- workers walked or caught Ubers to their next meetings. 

Then the COVID-19 pandemic hit, and things slid to a halt. Now, more than two years and several vaccines later, San Francisco’s office scene has still not rebounded and the city’s streets remain eerily quiet. 

If you think it’s even more sparse than other cities you’ve visited lately, you’re right. San Francisco is seeing the lowest attendance rates for office employees in the United States, according to Colin Yasukochi, executive director of real estate brokerage CBRE’s Tech Insights Center. Silicon Valley is not far behind.

Turns out the region’s heavy reliance on tech workers has also slowed down its recovery, with many local employees continuing to insist on remote work, and employers grudgingly allowing it. 

Tech companies, said Yasukochi, have “been the most accommodating in terms of offering flexibility and not requiring their employees to come back for any number of days. Some certainly have [asked staffers to come back]. But what their policy is and what their compliance is are two different things.”

He added: “They're saying you need to be back three days a week, and if you're only back two days of the week, or one day a week, or not at all, what are they doing to enforce that? And the answer to that question is, not a lot at the moment.”

Why tiptoe around the issue? Well, despite the fact that the tech industry has seen tens of thousands of workers laid off in recent months, Yasukochi believes that a still-strong labor market that provides employees with plenty of options has “a disproportionate amount of influence” over remote work policies. 

As he explained it, “It's still very difficult to hire, unemployment remains pretty low, tech workers have been traditionally difficult to hire for, and so many employers are worried about accelerating the normal turnover that they already have.”