President Biden called for Americans who are working remotely to “fill our great downtowns again” in his State of the Union speech on Tuesday — but that may not be in the cards. Ongoing CivicScience tracking data show a four-point drop in Americans’ overall comfort with working last week compared with the week before, down to 63%.
In fact, comfort with working has been the most volatile of the six indicators in CivicScience’s COVID Comfort Index since New Year’s Day. But with COVID case numbers on the decline nationwide, it may be time to consider that other factors are affecting Americans’ appetite for in-person work after two years remote – particularly since Americans’ comfort with shopping and eating out has not seen a similar decline.
The overall COVID Comfort Index dropped by 0.7 points week over week to 58.5, its first decline since 2022 began. Check out our infographic below for more details.
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