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San Francisco Girds for Blow of Office Workers Never Returning

The tech hub is particularly vulnerable to a long-term shift to remote jobs.

The San Francisco metro area has the lowest share of workers back at the office among 10 U.S. cities.

The San Francisco metro area has the lowest share of workers back at the office among 10 U.S. cities.

Photographer: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg
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As major U.S. cities recover from the pandemic, San Francisco is getting left behind.

The tech hub, an economic boomtown over the last decade, is struggling with the nation’s weakest office occupancies, stubbornly low transit ridership and one of the country’s slowest recoveries of jobs. White-collar employees embracing remote work have decamped to less pricey areas, raising the question of if they’ll ever come back.