Glassdoor came out with one of those “Best Cities For Jobs” reports recently, and then Fast Company went and deep-dove on it. Let’s actually start with the chart of the top 25 or so cities, because I feel that would be a helpful jump-off.
First thing that should probably jump out to you: a lot of kinda older, Rust-Belt-y, “Wait, young people don’t live there…” cities (Kansas City, OKC, Louisville) made the top 10. That’s all part of a nice-ass economic shift, where jobs are somewhat flowing (Louisville is No. 19 for hiring) to areas with a good cost of living (No. 13 for Louisville). If you can get a job and make $60K and your rent is still three digits for a nice new-ish apartment, that’s a deal.
That’s half the reason I live in Texas, honestly.
Now move to San Francisco, at No. 12 overall. It is:
- No. 2 for hiring.
- No. 1 for company satisfaction. (Everyone loves to try and work in SF.)
- No. 49 for cost of living.
This is a whole thing: San Francisco is beautiful and by a Bay and there are good jobs out there and you can make a lot of money relative to the skill sets you’re utilizing and all that, but the housing situation is a friggin’ train wreck. My most recent friend who moved there lives about 45 minutes west of the city — and that’s a good deal for a lot of people!
Said it before and will say it again: there’s going to be a tipping point with the millennial generation in this regard. It’s awesome to live in SF or New York or Seattle or Miami or some such (Miami is probably a little bit more of a Hispanic audience), but if you straight-up can’t afford it and your earnings are essentially stagnant, well, why would you do it?
I hate the whole idea that money is everything — money isn’t, time and experiences are — but the thing is, you often need money to have experiences. So if you can live and work in Louisville but see your friends at weddings more because you have more money to fly, or live and work in OKC but hit the Caribbean once/twice a year because your disposable income is higher, well … isn’t there something to be said for that?
TL:DR San Francisco is expensive. Will that eventually make less people live there?
