Where Talent Wants to Live

Excerpted from an article that first appeared at Chief Executive.

With unemployment down and wages rising, there’s growing concern that a lengthy and potentially crippling talent shortage will sweep the U.S. Addressing this could become a critical issue for businesses competing with Asian and European firms facing similar and, in many ways, more severe shortages.

In the U.S., the shortage has been sparked by both robust economic growth and labor force growth running at about one-third the norm since the middle of the last century. This is leading employers to consider raising wages for all kinds of workers.

Some suggest that firms must move to expensive, large urban cores to attract talent, particularly millennials. This assessment needs to be rethought. The labor shortage impacts not only highly coveted tech talent but also those in fields like supply chain management and manufacturing. In fact, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, IT is expected to grow by barely 0.2 percent in the next decade, well below health, energy, construction, urbhospitality and professional and business service sectors.

Workers in these fields may not be as willing or able to live in the cramped conditions typical of New York or San Francisco. And even well-educated workers, particularly those in their 30s, appear to be gravitating toward less expensive, more livable metros.

Read the entire piece at Chief Executive.

Homepage photo credit: Via Chief Executive.