Companies should probably rethink their office space + China has been secretly working to cement its position in the global chip industry

Across the globe, over one third of office desks are unoccupied throughout the workweek, Bloomberg reports, citing a report by Australian workplace analytics platform XY Sense. A post-pandemic reassessment of office space needs suggests that a shift away from traditional desk-oriented setups to more flexible and collaborative office spaces would be most suitable to current conditions. The report points out that while meeting rooms and more open areas that invite contact and communication are usually 90% full, they only account for 20% of total floor space, leaving the lion’s share to individual unused workstations.

Fewer desks, more collaborative spaces: The shift towards a hybrid working environment has been the source of reevaluation for office space needs, and the lack of desk use has been driving employers to rethink the need for a physical office space altogether. More than half of the organizations polled in a survey by CBRE, an American commercial real estate firm, that they expect to reduce their real estate needs by 2026. The data seems to suggest that the issue isn’t the significance of physical office space, but how that space is utilized, encouraging employers to create environments that foster connection and accommodate the evolving needs of the workforce.

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Are you a scientist? China wants you to join its labor force to get around its chip industry restrictions: China has quietly revived its Thousand Talents Plan (TTP) to recruit foreign-trained scientists and engineers, as the US tightens restrictions on the exports of chips, according to three sources with knowledge of the matter and a Reuters review of over 500 government documents spanning 2019 to 2023. The program runs under a new name and format known as “High-End Foreign Experts Recruitment plan,” which offers generous financial perks, including bonuses of up to USD 700k and home purchase subsidies, the three sources told Reuters.

BACKGROUND: The TTP was launched in 2008 to attract top talent to help the country’s economy grow, Reuters reports. In 2018, the Chinese government suspended the TTP amid US investigations accusing it of stealing intellectual property and technology. Last year, the Biden administration cracked down on exports of semiconductors and advanced chips to China as they are becoming a critical role in both military systems and the data-processing capacities that fuel our modern global economic system.