Experts have spent the year insisting that, with enough time and evidence, there’s no longer a doubt that remote work throws a wrench into productivity. Like it or not, in most industries, hybrid work is certain to remain a fixture, leaving the productivity levels of the office-only 2010s firmly in the past. But office buildings have barely crested to a half-full point this summer, per data from Kastle Systems provided exclusively to Fortune. Why, then, did the surprisingly strong second quarter include a boost in productivity as well? This is not what the remote work critics said would happen.
After five consecutive quarters of productivity declines—the longest stretch since World War II—workers initiated a stunning turnaround in the second quarter, with labor productivity spiking by 3.7% after a 1.2% slump in Q1, per a Labor Department report from Thursday. This surprised even the experts, who told Reuters they were expecting a 2% jump at most.
