On Silicon Valley’s remote work tipping point

Editor and urban studies fellow Joel Kotkin and assistant professor Marshall Toplansky explain how California’s exorbitant cost of living has seen tech workers electing to work remotely out-of-state. With Silicon Valley as a pivotal foundation of the State’s economy, this change — combined with rampant tech company exoduses — could spell trouble for California cities' economic and planning models.

Ironically, the biggest threat to California-based jobs may come from the changing nature of technology itself. Employees at the largest tech companies, including Google, Twitter, Pinterest, Facebook and Salesforce, will very likely continue to work remotely even after the pandemic. In a recent survey, three-quarters of high-tech venture funders and founders predicted the same for their workforces. And some 40% of Bay Area tech workers say they would like to move to a less expensive region, which suggests locations outside of California.

For the past three decades, California’s leaders have assumed that the state’s great advantages — superb universities, a large, diverse labor force, international connections — would help us weather economic storms. The pandemic has shown how wrong that is and how much needs to be done to meet this steadily growing economic crisis.

This article originally appeared in Fox & Hounds Daily. Read the whole thing here.

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