Startup Workers Are Coming Home

This post was originally published on LinkedIn Pulse.

In my book The Third Wave, I ask readers to imagine a future college graduate armed with a computer science degree from a top university. She has chosen from numerous job offers and is packing up her belongings to move to a new city for her first job. Until recently, most readers imagining such a vignette might assume that the graduate was off to Mountain View or Manhattan. But that young graduate is headed to New Orleans, one of the many innovation hubs of the future. And as it turns out, that future is not so far off.

According to the latest LinkedIn Workforce Report, the San Francisco Bay Area is no longer among the top ten cities that are gaining the most workers. Instead, individuals are opting to move to rising cities with lower costs of living and ample opportunity like Seattle, Denver, Austin, and Charlotte. As part of what I call the Rise of the Rest, the talent that would have typically flocked to the coasts is looking to the rest of the country.

This is not to say that all young people should avoid San Francisco or Boston, but rather that they should be just two of the many great cities entrepreneurial graduates can go to in the coming years. In a gradual boomerang of talent, people are returning to their hometown cities to be near family or a beloved university and build livelihoods in places that fulfill emotional or financial needs. On our Rise of the Rest tours, we often hear compelling stories of startup founders who want to be part of revitalizing the downtowns they remember or give their children the benefit of being near family.

But we can’t take for granted that this burgeoning trend will continue. Government at all levels has to further incentivize the creation and retention of startups in ecosystems across the country. As I explain in my R.E.S.T.A.R.T. America agenda, corporate and community support will be paramount to attracting the talent that will help these cities continue to rise. Local governments need to educate people about what is happening in their cities and actively campaign for talent to (continue to) boomerang back home.