Urban Reshuffle?

Remote work is accelerating a talent migration to cities with lower living costs and better quality of life.

 Michael Hendrix December 18, 2020

“I have moved to Texas,” declared Elon Musk this month. The auto and aerospace mogul is not alone. Podcaster Joe Rogan recently decamped to Texas, as did software giant Oracle and multinational IT company Hewlett Packard Enterprise. A slew of others, from financier Carl Icahn to software firm Palantir, have also fled pricey cities this year for cheaper, more livable locales across the country.

New data from LinkedIn suggests that working professionals are joining them. Changes in location on user profiles from April 2020 to October 2020 show a migration of talent to less-expensive hubs. According to a Bloomberg analysis, Austin, Phoenix, and Nashville gained the most talent during that period, while Hartford, New York City, and the San Francisco Bay Area lost the most. Far from causing the death of all cities, 2020 has breathed new life into some metros while leaving others on life support. Other winning cities include Tampa and Jacksonville, as well as Charlotte, Dallas, Denver, Las Vegas, and Charleston, South Carolina.............

By contrast, Rust Belt cities—the “comeback kids” of the past decade in downtown growth—don’t appear to have attracted these same talent flows, according to LinkedIn. Chicago ranks fourth among cities losing workers (and the Windy City is the largest source of new migrants to Nashville), followed by Cleveland (fifth), and Detroit, Cincinnati, and Pittsburgh (eighth through tenth place, respectively). If anything, sunshine is continuing to power urban growth..........To Read More.....