Cr Brown felt the increase in working from home due to COVID could lead to a lasting change in the way people work.

Read more: Extra Pfizer doses are heading to Wollongong

"With so many of us working from home and that how we work is changing, going back to commuting to the city CBD to sit in an open plan office will be a thing of the past," Cr Brown said.

"For many of us the technology has certainly enabled us to adapt in this time of pandemic - but what comes next is the big question."

For Cr Brown, the answer is co-working hubs - office space in regional areas where people can work remotely rather than sitting at their kitchen table at home.

"Personally, I miss the office camaraderie, the energy you get from your colleagues," she told council on Monday night.

"I can see us moving to a future with a hybrid model that allows work from home but also coming together to build team culture in a new type of office arrangement. I think the development of co-working hubs could meet this future demand."

At Monday night's meeting councillors approved her motion calling for the return of a state government pilot program that established five work hubs in western Sydney and the Central Coast.

As part of that reinstatement, Wollongong would be included as a hub.

"We have 10,400 fewer jobs in the last year due to COVID so we need to be looking at opportunities to stem this trend and look for new pathways to create local jobs," she said.

"I think with the amount of office space we have and a large commuter population it would greatly benefit us if the NSW government could designate making Wollongong a location for co-working hubs and a reinstatement of that program.

"Our region could hopefully start to attract new jobs and business investment and stop that job drain from COVID."

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