Off the Charts: More people are returning to the office. Is Seattle traffic about to get worse?

Seattle's population has increased by over 15,000 residents since the start of the pandemic, while average commute times have gone down slightly from 28.4 minutes to 25.5 minutes — due in no small part to work-from-home policies.

Prior to the pandemic, only 8% of Seattleites worked from home. That number shot up to 47% by 2021, but has been declining ever since.

Amazon recently joined the ranks of local employers calling for employees to return to the office five days a week — a move that will impact its employees as well as other commuters.

KUOW took a look at the U.S. Census Bureau's most recent data to see just how prevalent work-from-home policies are across Seattle and how traffic has fared.