Where you work -- and how you work -- is changing faster than you think. In fact, the demand for office space has reached the highest levels since 2006, on account of the growing economy and steady job growth. Coworking spaces may be one way to satiate this increased demand, and they’re a practical solution, particularly with the freelance economy as a backdrop. The self-employed make up 10% of the nation’s 146 million workers and provided jobs for 29.4 million other workers, according to the Census Bureau. And over the last three years, companies with fewer than 50 workers created more jobs than companies with 1,000 employees or more. In fact, there’s a 5:1 ratio, says Mitch Roschelle, a partner at PriceWaterhouseCoopers. “These small companies can’t really afford to have big space and obligate themselves to a multi-year lease,” he says. Shared spaces are a way to curb real estate costs and grow at the same time.Enter startups like WeWork, a coworking company currently valued at $16 billion that’s now branching into Asia (after a $430 million round of funding led by Chinese investors), and smaller competitors like NeueHouse, Grind and Fueled Collective. But to skeptics who might think this is a passing trend for 20- and 30-somethings in hot markets like New York and San Francisco, keep this in mind: The demand for office space will continue to outpace supply across the U.S., according to the latest PwC survey, and pushing up rent prices in secondary markets like Nashville and Austin as well. The shared space phenomena is for all kinds of small businesses, not just tech startups, says Roschelle. Secondary markets are startup-friendly and provide healthy employment opportunities -- and companies like WeWork are capitalizing on this interest. WeWork, for example, has 90 locations in 28 different cities, including Portland, Denver, Austin and San Jose, Calif.These smaller, affordable markets are also popular with baby boomers who are looking for places to retire, where they can work part time and there’s an arts and culture scene, says Roschelle. “So it’s not just about millennials -- it’s really about multiple generations,” he says.Though Roschelle is bullish on shared commercial spaces, he says that they’re only a partial solution to employees being crammed into offices: “The entire office sector is in dire need of a reboot.”
Demand for offices space in the US has reached its highest level since 2006, fuelled by the growth trend in the small companies sector. According to Mitch Roschelle, a partners at PwC, companies with less than 50 employees created five times more jobs than those with a thousand employees or more. The number of new businesses is expected to grow from about 10 million this year to 20 million next year, according to an analysis published on Monday by Ernst & Young. PwC predicts that demand for office space will continue to outpace supply in the US.