Minneapolis Downtown Council: Workforce back at 30% compared to pre-pandemic
Vehicles travel into downtown Minneapolis along I-35W. (FOX 9)
MINNEAPOLIS (FOX 9) - The Minneapolis Downtown Council says, according to information gathered from downtown businesses and employers, around 30 percent of the 218,000 workers who came to Minneapolis every day, have returned to the office.
"That’s up double from about two months ago," Steve Cramer, President and CEO of the Minneapolis Downtown Council said.
Cramer says employers tell him the week after the Fourth of July holiday and the week after Labor Day are two major timeframes for starting to welcome employees back.
"It’s been a slow build-up over the last 15 months and in the last couple of months we’ve seen this real steady rise, and we expect to continue to see that and then a real inflexion point at Labor Day to the end of the year," Cramer said.
Cramer says last March, after Governor Walz put stay-at-home orders in place, only around five percent of the workforce was still coming downtown daily. He says around 80 percent of the businesses they surveyed said workers will likely return on a hybrid model, returning to the office three or four days a week.
"The general trajectory is headed in the right direction and we’re going to see that momentum continue through the end of the year," Cramer said.
Data shows a steady rise in Twin Cities metro traffic, slowly approaching pre-pandemic levels. (Metropolitan Council)
The Metropolitan Council has also been studying traffic patterns as a way to better understand work and employment habits. Ashley Asmus, a data scientist with the Metropolitan Council, says in March of 2020 traffic on metro freeways was down 60 to 70 percent.
"Lately we’ve noticed a really steady amount of traffic it’s been about five to eight percent below regular levels on the metro freeways," Asmus said.
She notes that does not mean that traffic increases are directly connected to people returning to work in-person, however the data does suggest some shifting traffic patterns compared to before the pandemic.
"We’re seeing at or above normal levels of traffic in that p.m. rush hour period and also that peak is becoming longer, we’re seeing a longer rush hour period as people change their travel behavior," Asmus said.
Asmus suggests people still working from home may be hitting the road in the afternoon to run errands or participate in other kinds of travel.
Another indication of work life returning to a more normal is Metro Transit announcing the return of some express commuter services to suburbs like Maple Grove and Brooklyn Park.
Cramer acknowledges that public safety may be a concern among those returning to downtown Minneapolis for work. Currently the number of homicides within the city are more than double this time last year and are reaching record levels. He says they continue to work closely with the Minneapolis Police Department to improve safety.
"The reality of safety is there are challenges downtown - always have been, always will be. I think our biggest issue is the perception of those challenges outstrips the reality and so we have to keep working to help people understand what the safety situation really is and really isn’t," Cramer said. "A busy street, an active street is a safer street and so part of the challenge around the perception of safety is just the fact that there aren’t as many people around."
The Metropolitan Council is trying to collect more information about traffic patterns and are asking people who live in the metro to participate in a travel survey.