Over the past two years, property management and security firm Kastle Systems has emerged as the definitive source of data for how reluctant workers are to go back to their cubicles. Now, Fortune is providing data from the security company, which tracks keycard swipes nationwide. In June, the song largely remains the same and the glass has remained half-emptyor half-full, depending on your stance. 

For the week ending June 14th, office occupancy in the 10 largest metro areas nationwide averaged a shade under 50%just 49.7% of workers were back in offices on any given day. That was a slight dip from the week prior50.3%but a material bump from the week following Memorial Day, which was 47.6%.  

Kastles average office occupancy data has been steadily ticking upward from 2020 lows, but has yet to exceed 50.4%, the high it reached the week of January 23rd, 2023. The fact that occupancy continuesin June 2023to hover just below that high suggests that a long-heralded return en masse is unlikely to materialize. 

You cant put the genie back in the bottle

The big-name Fortune 500 companies, like Google and Salesforce, that have made stab after stab at reinstating in-person work pull some weight in the return-to-office battle, Scott Bonneau, Indeeds vice president of global talent attraction and HR analytics, said last year. But a five-day in-person week is not likely to exist again. You cant put the genie back in the bottle. 

Economists looking at the commercial real estate landscape would say something similar. In a paper published last year, New York University and Columbia University researchers estimated that New York City office values will drop 44% by 2029. Dubbing it a real estate apocalypse, the researchers said the prolonged impact of remote work will incur a country-wide $500 billion value destruction. In other words, theres a lot of money riding on the Kastle Systems data.

All told, bosses should consider 49.7% a success; were unlikely to ever exceed 60% occupancy, Kastle Systems Chairman Mark Ein told Fortunes Trey Williams in December 2022.

I do think there will be a ceiling for workplace attendance, because I think the sorts of firms that work in buildings with Kastle Systems are going to embrace at least some form of hybrid work, Jose Maria Barrero, one of the economics professors behind WFH Research, told Fortune in February. I dont expect everyone to be in [the office] most of the time, and the banner moment to return has probably already passed. I wouldve thought last fall or last spring, some time like that.

Most companies surveyed by architecture firm Unispace said theyve mandated office returns for their workers, but almost half said theyre now seeing more attrition than they expected. Almost 30% of those companies admitted theyre struggling to recruit new workers, which probably isnt a coincidence. 

Now, lets take a look at some of the cities that are winningand losingthe remote work wars.

New York and San Francisco

Kastles data only extends to the U.S.s 10 largest metro areas: Washington, D.C., New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco, San José, Houston, Dallas, Austin, Chicago, and Los Angeles. It doesnt account for cities in Florida like Miami and Tampa, which have been major Sun Belt hot spots since the pandemic started.   

It does offer valuable snapshots of New York and San Francisco, though, two superstar cities that won the economy of the 2000s and 2010s but were highly vulnerable to the shock of the COVID-19 pandemic.

In New York, last weeks occupancy figure dropped to 48.1%, while it fell further to 44.4% in San Francisco. Thats brutalizing both cities economies. According to a Bloomberg study from earlier this year, the average worker currently spends $4,661 less per year on meals, shopping, and entertainment near New Yorks business district, and $3,040 less in San Francisco, compared to pre-pandemic. Many leaders in those cities have begun to lose hope that an office boomerang is ever going to come; both San Francisco Mayor London Breed and New York City Mayor Eric Adams have introduced legislation to more easily convert vacant office buildings into desperately needed housing.  

The lowest occupancy, though, was in the heart of Silicon Valley. San José-Santa Clara-Sunnyvale, home to many Silicon Valley companies including Google, saw occupancy of just 39.4%. Meta and Salesforcetwo Silicon stalwartshave been desperately trying to order its employees back in, to much discontent. Other Bay Area giants, like GitLab and Airbnb, have instead opted to appeal to many workers demands and go fully remote on a permanent basis. 

Houston and other hotspots

The metro area with the most in-office attendees last week was Houston, which saw 60.6% occupancy. Austin stood just behind at 58.3%, followed by Dallas at 54.5%. Perhaps thats more a bellwether than anything. The state of TexasHouston in particularhas been winning the Fortune 500 headquarters race. 

For two consecutive years, the Lone Star State has hosted the most Fortune 500 companies, which total $2.6 trillion in revenue and generate $226.5 billion in profit. Houston is considered the worlds energy capital, Fortunes Paolo Confino wrote earlier this month, and possesses 17 of Texass energy companies, including Phillips 66, which is worth $175.7 billion. Plus, Tesla and SpaceXs bombastic CEO Elon Musk moved himself and his companies to Austin in 2020, leaving California behind.

Kastle has been posting weekly occupancy data since February 2020, and if last years numbers are any indication, this weeks 49.7% figure is likely to drop between five and 10 percentage points as the summer goes on. From there, it will probably tick back up modestly, but its unlikely to rise far beyond 50% anytime soon.  

It goes in fits and starts, Ein, the Kastle chairman, said. [Office occupancy] has been on a steady rise since the beginning of [2022]. But there will be a natural ceiling to it. Were never really going to get to 100%.

Fortune will continue to provide weekly updates on Kastles latest data.

Jordan has built his name into a branded business since his days on the court. His best known deal was born out of his partnership with Nike: the timeless Air Jordan sneaker. It wasnt just a hit in Foot Lockers nationwide, it broke the norm as Jordan was more than a sponsor but a stakeholder in the brand. As documented in the recent Ben Affleck movie, Air, which featured extensive behind-the-scenes involvement from his Airness himself, the business savvy of Jordans mother, Deloris, was the pivotal factor convincing Jordan to listen to Nikes pitch and negotiating for 25% of royalties for every shoe. (Jordan himself wanted to sign with Adidas, then the dominant shoe brandand all those years later, Jordan himself insisted that Affleck and co-producer Matt Damon cast Oscar winner Viola Davis as his beloved mother.)

Partnering with a lesser-known brand at the time led to a $2.5 million, five-year contractnothing to sneeze at, especially in 1984. What could have been just a shoe deal became a new precedent, as Jordans stake in the company paved the way for sports players seeing more from their sponsorships. In a sign of his influence, the arrival of another GOAT, soccer great Lionel Messi, to America, comes under a similar arrangement, as Major League Soccer is working with corporate partners Apple and, yes, Adidas (with whom Messi already has a lifetime contract) on some kind of equity stake for the Argentinian legend, to go along with his reported $60 million contract. 

Jordan continued to own the 90s, with sponsorships with McDonalds, Gatorade, and Hanes, among others. He was catapulted into international fame in the 1992, while leading the Dream Team of NBA superstars to a gold medal in the first Olympic Games following the fall of the Berlin Wall and demise of the USSR. The win was also a symbolic one, a triumph of the U.S. as the Cold War ended, and Jordan became a figure that represented said victory. His name and likeliness gained global recognition as he became the face of McDonalds once it entered the post USSR Russia. (He also inspired legions of international kids to pick up basketballs and transformed the sport into a global one, as evidenced by recent NBA Finals MVP Nikola Jokic, from Serbia.)

All these deals helped Jordans net worth soar to $2 billion. He earned $90 million until he retired, but since leaving the court has raked in $1.8 billion pre-tax from his historic partnerships, per Forbes. The number is now likely higher, post his pending NBA franchise sale. Jordans actual stake during his 13 years helming the Hornets is unclear, as is how much hes actually keeping in order to still be a minority shareholder. But considering he owned at least 50% of the company, Jordan has at least $1.5 billion on the line from this deal.

Keeping with the GOATs proclivity for breaking records, the deal is the seventh-most expensive sports team sale ever, per Axios. Six out of the seven record-breaking NBA team sales have occurred in the last 13 months, underscoring the current weight of a sports investment these days. Minting deals with streaming and cable, the NBA has soared high enough that the average team was worth $2.86 billion in 2022, 15% higher than just one year prior, per Forbes. NBA franchise values have exploded since Donald Sterling bought the LA Clippers for $13.5 million in 1981, a figure thats worth more than $44 billion today. In 2019, Joseph Tsai bought the Brooklyn Nets for $2.35 billion in 2019 and Mat Ishbia bought the Phoenix Suns for $4 billion in 2022.

Jordan bought in before the latter two in 2010, acquiring BET founder Bob Johnsons Charlotte Bobcatswhich later became the Hornetsfor just $275 million. Now, the GOAT athlete-business mogul is pulling off quite the coup with this sale. Meanwhile, GOAT counterpart Lebron James, who is worth just a reported $1 billion, hopes to acquire a team one day.

Jordan has been there, done that.

The average math scores for 13-year-olds showed the largest drop in 50 years, now down to the same number in 1990. Reading scores tumbled as well, dropping to 2004 levels, according to the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP).

The declines were the largest ever recorded by the NAEP and reflect differences between the 2019-2020 school year and the 2022-2023 one.

The green shoots of academic recovery that we had hoped to see have not materialized, as we continue to see worrisome signs about student achievement and well-being more than two years after most students returned for in-person learning, said Peggy G. Carr, commissioner of the National Center for Education Statistics in a statement. There are signs of risk for a generation of learners.

While math showed the biggest declines, the reading scores for the lowest-performing students were nearly as worrisome, coming in lower than the first year data was collected in 1971. Officials note the percentage of 13-year-olds who read for fun has also dropped precipitously over the past decade.

Reading for fun is strongly associated with higher achievement, explained Commissioner Carr. Aside from its academic effects, reading opens the mind and the heart to new ways of seeing and thinking about the world. Many of our young people will never discover latent passions or areas of interest without reading broadly on their own time.

The lower math scores were across the board, affecting all regions of the country and all ethnicities. Reading scores were more pronounced for Black, multiracial and White students. Hispanic, Asian, American Indian and Alaska Native students, however, saw scores that were not measurably different.

The NAEP monitors student performance in these two testing areas to gauge how the performance of students has changed over time. Assessments are based on age, not grade.

Musk has been promising to deliver a self-driving car for the best part of a decadebut Tesla does not, as yet, offer a fully self-driving vehicle. While its cars now come with driver assistance known as Autopilot mode, they are not yet capable of controlling themselves with zero input from drivers.

But according to an anonymous security researcher and hacker with a sizeable online following, Teslas are already capable of driving themselvesif you know how to tinker with them.

In a series of tweets, anonymous Tesla Model X owner, who goes by the Twitter handle @greentheonly, said they had uncovered a way of putting their Tesla into what they labeled Elon Modean autopilot setting that comes without the dreaded nag.

The existing autopilot or full self-driving (FSD) modes on Teslas require drivers to intermittently put pressure on the steering wheel to prove they are paying attention to the road. Drivers are prompted to do so by a symbol and flashing on the touch screenif they fail to grab the steering wheel, the visual prompt escalates to a beeping sound. The cars autopilot system can be disabled for several weeks if the driver still does not comply with the car instructing them to put their hands on the wheel.

Last year, Musk promised Tesla would start removing the autopilot systems so-called nagging from Januarybut the company has not yet followed through. He said earlier this year that the company was gradually reducing it, in line with safety requirements.

The hacker, Greenwho has built up a reputation for finding new Tesla features before the company officially rolls them outsaid they had driven almost 600 miles on the so-called Elon Mode.

A solid deal

While the hacker said overall they were happy with the experience, they pointed out a few flaws with the technology, such as its refusal to overtake slower vehicles, its struggles with road debris and potholes, and unnecessary lane changes.

In 2022, Tesla hiked the price of its FSD software suite from $12,000 to $15,000, or a monthly subscription fee of $199.

If they offer this as L3 where I dont need to pay attention, it would be a solid deal at $15K, the hacker tweeted last week in their review of Elon Mode.

Impressions after nearly 600 miles on 11.4.3 with Elon mode (could not get a non-Tesla car to try in time).
It went much better than the prior experiment obviously.
Many contributing factors. I was not as late so I did not mind as much (still ended up 5 minutes late solely

green (@greentheonly) June 17, 2023

L3 refers to level three autonomous driving, which allows conditional self-driving, meaning the car will take over from the driver only in certain conditions like traffic jams. Mercedes is the only carmaker to have achieved certification for L3 driving in the United States.

Tesla, meanwhile, is still certified at level two (L2), as the company has battled with a series of headaches related to its FSD technology.

In February this year, Tesla issued a voluntary recall for 362,758 vehicles that were equipped with its FSD Beta software, warning that the system may cause crashes.

A month earlier, Tesla revealed that the U.S. Justice Department had requested documents about its FSD software.

Meanwhile, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) launched an investigation into Teslas Autopilot system last year following fatal crashes in Florida and California.