New Jersey residents in the tri-state area are slowly returning to their offices after the pandemic.

News 12’s Rick Holmes spoke to commuters in Jersey City’s Journal Square to hear their thoughts.

People like Stephen Silvestri, a record store employee, prefer commuting to working from home.

“From my experience, I had to account for the work I was doing in a very minute level. So, accounting for that and just not having the social aspect of a workspace,” he said.

Silvestri is not alone. Since Labor Day, keycard swipes show a 4% increase in people returning to the office. However, that is still down 43.8% since the beginning of the pandemic.

Kathy Liu, a dancer from Jersey City, believes work culture has taken a permanent shift as a result of the pandemic.

"I think at this point if they haven't gone back, they don't want to go back. So, they'll make the decisions they need to in order not to go back. I think they're going to stay at home,” she said.