Office space per worker can shrink by up to 40% in Burnaby

The need for workspace and “employment land” is growing in Burnaby, but local workers may be dealing with less space in the future.

New projections show that the amount of square footage per worker in Burnaby is expected to decrease by 14 to 40 per cent by 2021, depending on the type of employment, according to a report presented to the city’s planning committee last week.

Office workers could see the biggest drop from 550 square feet. ft. per worker in 2021 in 330 sq. ft. in 2051, while trade workers could see a nearly 30 percent drop from 550 square feet. ft. per worker in 390 sq. ft.

Mayor Mike Hurley raised concerns about the trend, which he said would mean “a lot less space per worker”.

“How did we reach this number? Are people getting smaller?” Hurley joked.

“I feel like people are very tightly packed right now, so I’m a little surprised by that.”

City planner Chun Nam Law said the numbers could be partly explained by increased workplace flexibility, such as co-working spaces and working from home, but he also noted that the pandemic base year of 2021 makes forecasting difficult. of trends.

Hurley warned that many employers are likely to move away from working from home in the future, which could change hiring needs.

By 2051, the city expects work-from-home employment to drop from a pandemic peak of 36,500 to 15,800, a 57 percent drop.

The Future of Work in Burnaby

The number of office workers is set to double from 21,300 to 43,800 and the number of commercial workers is expected to increase by more than 80 percent from 25,800 to 46,700, according to the report by Law and planner Danais Ponce.

The city expects to add 51,700 net new jobs between 2021 and 2051.

Overall, the number of jobs located in employment lands is projected to increase by about 72,000, a 70 percent net change in employment, between 2021 and 2051, according to the report.

Burnaby needs about 22 million square feet. ft. more employment space, 26 percent more than now, mainly for industrial, office and commercial uses.

Burnaby currently has about 83 million square feet. ft. of gross built area employment for about 103,500 jobs as of 2021.

You can access the data through city charts and design chart reports.

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