Dean Jankowski is an IT director for a company in the city who only commutes into the office twice a week.

“It works very well. I know the company we looked at the numbers during the pandemic and our productivity didn’t suffer at all,” he said from Penn Station.

Now, with a hybrid schedule, there’s more collaboration and more lunches out together.

“A group of us will probably go out together more or we’ll go out with other people just because it’s a little easier to do. We don’t see each other as much,” he said.

The work-from-home-era has transformed New York City work culture, its downtown office districts and the shape of the economy.

But a new report from the Regional Plan Association, called Commuter Dividend, argues that work-from-home has not weakened the economic ties between Manhattan and the surrounding region.

Chris Jones, who spoke to NY1 while working from home, is one of the report’s authors.

“It’s certainly not that work-from-home doesn’t matter at all it does. It had a big impact on the big impact on the businesses in Midtown, for example. It had a big impact on the housing market both in the city and the suburb. But it really doesn’t affect the flow of labor and wages between New York City and New Jersey, Long Island, Connecticut and the Hudson Valley,” he said.

The report estimated that in 2022, a million wage earners outside of the city hold one in five jobs within the city. Whether they commute in or work from home, these workers brought $141 billion back to their communities. Their spending resulted in an estimated 627,000 jobs and $59 billion in earnings.

This sounds good for the suburbs. But what about New York?

“The income taxes still go to New York City, New York state, if you’re working in New York City,” Jones said. “And there’s all of the effects that the business has. If you’re an accounting firm in Midtown Manhattan, let’s say you’re pulling more and more workers from everywhere. A number of them are working from home more days, but that business in New York City still means a lot for everything to property tax revenues to the type of business purchases they make and people are still coming into work.”

Still, Andrew Rein of the Citizens Budget Commission said work-from-home is a fundamental economic shift facing leaders.

“There’s been some shift of economic activity from business districts to residences and neighborhoods and that’s a good thing, but still we need the fundamental growth in our downtowns,” Rein said. “We need to convert them to 24/7 living-working communities because that growth will help spur greater growth throughout the region.”