At the height of the pandemic, it was widely believed that outmigration from large cities would lead to a talent drain. Three years later, however, CBRE has published an analysis of migration data which shows that most U.S. cities have lost less than 1% of their white-collar workforces since 2020. In fact, some major metros such as New York City have even seen a net inflow in recent months!
CBRE analyzed LinkedIn Talent data to chart aggregate movement of professionals from 2020 through February 2023 and found that San Francisco lost 0.9%, Los Angeles 0.2%, and New York City 0.6%. Meanwhile many Sunbelt cities saw a net inflow including Austin (up 4%), Nashville (up 2%) and Tampa (up 2%).
The report also noted “Metro New York’s talent out-migration in the first two years of the pandemic morphed into a net talent inflow during the year ending in February 2023.” Additionally Dallas-Ft Worth Charlotte Tampa Orlando Houston all experienced higher levels on in-migration over this same period while other top destinations for tech workers like Austin Seattle Denver Phoenix Las Vegas Miami Atlanta saw lower levels or no change at all .
Chris Volney managing director at CBRE’s Americas Consulting division said “Pandemic driven out migration from major metro areas has minimally affected talent availability… Over past year rate [of] out migration [in] largest metros slowed – even reversing [in] some cases…[and] many largest markets attract[ing] younger tech & finance workers”.
Ultimately though when put into context these percentages are relatively small; for example it would take more than 80 years for Austin’s workforce to reach San Francisco’s current size with its current growth rate!
