New data indicates that the appetite for coworking is ravenous, but are operators able to keep up?
According to analysis from CoworkingCafe, coworking spaces currently take up 120 million square feet across 5,800 locations in the U.S. However, some cities are lagging in their ability to accommodate newfound demand.
For instance, Newark, New Jersey claims to have experienced the highest spike of freelancers between 2019 and 2021, but only has two coworking spaces per 1,000 of these professionals. Other regions are seeing similar gaps, with Nashville having just three coworking spaces per 1,000 freelancers.
On the other hand, some cities are rising to the occasion by offering a variety of coworking spaces for their healthy freelancer population.
“Despite seeing a significant decrease of 10% in its number of freelancers, [Pittsburgh] provides the highest number of coworking spaces on our list — 12 per 1,000 freelancers,” the report stated.
There are many reasons why coworking operators may not be expanding at a pace that meets demand. For one, supply chains are still backed up, inflation remains high, shares on the stock market are low and the new year is expected to usher in a recession.
In order to avoid a repeat of the initial pandemic days, coworking companies are taking a cautious approach as demand is never guaranteed in this modern work culture.
