A new study from Glassdoor looks at where people are relocating for jobs and what’s drawing them there. According to CityLab writer Teresa Mathew, the study didn't have too many surprising findings.
The study found that the most popular cities to move to include all the usual suspects: San Francisco, California; New York City, New York; San Jose, California; Los Angeles, California; and Washington, D.C. But San Jose was also ranked second on the list of cities where people are trying to move away. It’s “an oddball case,” said Andrew Chamberlain, Glassdoor’s chief economist. There are a few different factors at play there, he explained. San Jose’s steep housing prices are certainly one, but so is its proximity to San Francisco—people are more willing to leave their metro if they can move to another one nearby.
That helps explain why the number one metro people look to leave is neither a rust-belt town nor a post-industrial one. It’s Providence, Rhode Island: home to Brown University, the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), and a slew of other colleges—and it’s also close to Boston. “Boston has this gravity pull that just sucks away talent,” said Chamberlain. “So that’s the main reason why Providence loses skilled workers—because it’s such an easy move for people. Compare that to Atlanta, where the next metro is maybe a four-hour drive. The metros where you have nothing else around you, a four-hour or longer drive, few people relocate out because it’s a huge life change. Other metros, like Riverside, it’s short trip to L.A., so it makes sense a lot of people would be moving.”
The study also found that while money is important, salary takes a back seat to company culture when applicants consider relocating for work. According to the data, a company with a Glassdoor rating that’s one star (out of five stars) higher than a competitor’s is six times more likely to attract a candidate, even if the competitor is offering a salary $10,000 times higher.
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