Thanks to its mix of residential, office, retail, medical, and entertainment buildings, Center City’s economy has been successfully recovering from the pandemic, but the bounce back is still incomplete, writes Michaelle Bond for The Philadelphia Inquirer.

Philadelphia is the third most populated city in the nation, which helps in the recovery as tourists and office workers have yet to return in pre-pandemic numbers, according to an annual report from the Center City District.

In addition, Center City has been gaining residents since the pandemic started. It recorded an increase in residents of 35 percent from March 2020 to March 2023.

Meanwhile, jobs have fully recovered. While Philadelphia saw an employment drop of 15 percent from 2019 to 2020, as of the end of February 2023, the city has regained all the jobs it lost.

However, Philadelphia’s job growth still only ranked at No. 25 out of 30 major U.S. cities.

The number of workers in offices has also been trending upward, but the average daily worker volume in Center City’s office district remains under half of where it was in 2019.

Read more about the Center City recovery in The Philadelphia Inquirer.

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