San Francisco is at record low unemployment, but concern is mounting about the growing wave of layoffs in the San Francisco Bay Area’s tech industry.

Among the highest-profile layoffs in recent weeks are those at Twitter, which amid news of the Elon Musk purchase deal collapsing let go of 30% of its recruitment staff as the company looks to restructure and cut costs.

An analysis by Savills of Q2 2022 Prime Office Costs (SPOC) in global markets around the world suggests that inflation and supply chain issues are now feeding into office fit-out costs and keeping occupiers’ net effective costs high in many cities around the world. Over the past year office fit-out costs have risen an average of 6 percent across the SPOC cities that have so far reported rises says Savills, although proportionally they remain a small part of overall costs compared to rents.

According to the firm, average office utilisation has risen to 59 percent across the markets surveyed, up from 49 percent in Q1 2022, the highest level since the pandemic, although there is significant geographic variation.

Costs may be high and labor short, but contractors are still planning projects, further driving up construction spending on an annual basis.

Dodge Construction Network's Momentum Index, a monthly measure of nonresidential building projects in the planning stages, increased slightly in June to 173.6, pushing the metric to its highest level since 2008. The index measures how much the number of projects fluctuates from the level seen in 2000, which is the baseline year for the index, equivalent to 100.

As the pandemic continues, employees are searching for ways to stay healthy and connect with others. According to the International WELL Building Institute, the physical workplace is one of the top three factors affecting job performance and satisfaction. In response, companies are seeking ways to invest in their most important asset: people. Hybrid workforces have introduced new challenges, and the pandemic has pushed health and wellness to the forefront of design for the workplace.

Work can be a grind, and expectations have shifted significantly—with working conditions increasingly under scrutiny. What people really want is becoming increasingly clear with research which shows what matters most—and what doesn’t.

A senior media exec is frustrated that return-to-office mandates aren’t being executed or enforced equally.

The designer’s firm Joy Street Design emphasizes clever space planning, colorful contemporary forms, and approachability.

Proptech company Yardi announced a couple of expansions of its coworking and flex space offerings. One was the launch of its new CoWorkingCafe.com site, which is designed to “allow real-time bookings for conference rooms and private offices.”

Two of the region’s leading MillerKnoll furniture dealers have combined to create the company’s largest minority and woman-owned dealer in the country.

 

The transaction adds approximately 40 Spectrum employees to CFI, including Peggy Kelly, who had served as Spectrum’s president and CEO, and who will remain involved as a strategic advisor. The addition of Spectrum’s team brings the total number of employees to about 100, the company said.

SmithGroup shares what’s working for their firm and clients as they continue to evolve to meet today and tomorrow’s needs.

Buildings are designed for men, which makes them far less efficient.

JLL has inked a new partnership with a proptech firm as part of its effort to build an ecosystem of tech solutions for office landlords and tenants.

The global commercial real estate firm reached a deal to sell one of its own workplace tech applications to HqO, a startup it invested in last year, as a way to combine two types of office tech offerings into one platform, JLL Technologies President Sharad Rastogi told Bisnow.

At the beginning of the pandemic, there was a pervasive belief that remote work would become permanent, resulting in a knee-jerk conclusion that an office

The switch to remote work for office-using employees imposed by the pandemic has proven incredibly resilient, but it has also played a factor in wage growth falling behind the pace of inflation.

Employees’ preference for the flexibility of remote and hybrid work has resulted in companies treating work-from-home as an amenity in hiring, partially offsetting the upward wage pressures from the tight labor market and inflation, according to a new study from the National Bureau of Economic Research.

The end of remote work in the Virginia state government has brought on a wave of resignations.

After Gov. Glenn Youngkin announced a new telework policy in early May that required many employees to return to the office full time, more than 300 workers resigned, Richmond ABC affiliate 8News reported, citing state records it obtained.