San Francisco has been the slowest to recover from the pandemic of any major U.S. city.
According to the Economic Recovery Tracking Index launched by the Bay Area Council Business Group on the 28th, San Francisco’s regional economic recovery ranked 24th, behind Baltimore, among 25 large cities across the country.
Economic recovery was ranked based on 15 indicators, including regional job growth, population growth, office occupancy, labor force growth, sales tax receipts and new home construction.
According to commercial real estate firm CBRE, San Francisco had 27% of all office space in the city empty by the end of 2022. This is because permanent telecommuting has skyrocketed due to the pandemic. According to the Federal Census Bureau Community, 5 to 10 percent of Bay Area workers reported working from home in 2019, but that number soared to 46 percent in 2021.
San Francisco recorded the lowest score in the economic activity index, with a score of 3.2 out of 100. A $96 million decrease in city sales tax revenue from 2019 to 2021 was a major factor. Washington, D.C., ranked second worst, with a score of 12.7 out of 100. Sales tax revenue and decline in travel/visitors were among the indicators of economic activity.
The San Jose area ranked 16th out of 25 large cities, showing a better situation than San Francisco, but the economic recovery was still on the slow side.
The only category where both San Jose and San Francisco topped the list was investment.
Meanwhile, among the 25 large cities in the United States, Texas had the fastest recovery from the pandemic, with Austin in first place and Dallas in second.
Denver, Colorado came in third, followed by Tampa, Florida, and Miami, fourth and fifth, respectively.