Manchester’s Missing Mondays: How Hybrid Work is Reshaping the City – and What It Means for Hospitality

Five years ago, just 5% of UK workers regularly worked from home. In 2020, lockdowns forced a complete shift in working patterns. And in 2025, we’re still living with the impact.

According to recent data shared on the MYP LinkedIn, 47% of people now work from home on Mondays — a stark contrast from pre-pandemic times.

And in our own 2024 MYP survey, 72% of respondents confirmed they now work in a hybrid way.

Hybrid work has brought many positives: better work-life balance, fewer commutes, and greater flexibility. But it has also fundamentally changed the rhythm of city life — especially in Manchester — and especially at the start of the week.

 

📉 Where Did All the Mondays Go?

Before COVID-19, most people in professional services were in the office five days a week. Based on data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS), only around 5% of UK workers regularly worked from home in 2019.

Now, that figure has nearly 10x’d on Mondays alone.

Let’s do the maths.

Manchester’s city centre has an estimated 120,000 daily office workers in sectors like law, finance, digital, public services, and more.

  • In 2019, with 95% commuting in, that’s around 114,000 people in the city on a typical Monday.
  • In 2025, with only 53% commuting in, that drops to 63,600.
  • That’s a drop of over 50,000 people — just on one day of the week.

☕ The £8.6 Million Coffee Gap

Let’s take just one simple daily ritual: buying a coffee.

  • If each of those 50,000 people used to buy just one coffee at £3.20…
  • That’s a £160,000–£180,000 drop in spending — per Monday.
  • Multiply that by 48 working weeks in a year?
  • That’s over £8.6 million a year lost to local hospitality venues — on coffee alone.

Now factor in lunches, snacks, drinks, grab-and-go breakfasts, impulse buys, tips, team socials — and the real picture starts to emerge.

 

🏙️ Midweek is the New City Peak

Local hospitality operators have noticed the shift too. Sam, Operations Manager at Haunt and Exhibition, explained how different the week now looks:

“The week looks really different now. Excluding the weekend, Tuesday-Thursday are our busiest days but the drop off in trade regarding Monday’s and Friday’s are huge. Pre-Covid there were clear traditional patterns of slower trade on a Monday but over the past few years it can be up to a 50-60% deficit. Notably, this pattern can also be observed on a Tuesday following a bank holiday.” – Sam, Operations Manager, Haunt & Exhibition

In short: people are still coming out — but the energy is now packed into the midweek window.

 

💡 Why This Matters

When we talk about city life, we’re not just talking about footfall numbers. We’re talking about:

  • Independent businesses being able to plan and open full time.
  • Hospitality teams getting enough hours to keep jobs viable.
  • The feeling of a buzzing, connected city where people bump into friends, colleagues, clients.

Hybrid work isn’t going anywhere — and nor should it. But this is a reminder that coming into the office, even just one more day a week, makes a real difference.

Whether you’re picking up a morning flat white, grabbing lunch with your team, or heading out for a midweek drink — every decision supports the ecosystem of venues, jobs, and people that keep Manchester moving.

 

❤️ What Can You Do?

  • Come in on a Monday or Friday (or even just once more a week)
  • Support local — grab that coffee, lunch, or after-work pint
  • Champion your city — help it thrive beyond Tuesday to Thursday

Because as we said in our original post: Manchester needs you. And sometimes, all it takes is showing up.