- Americans taking new jobs moved to Boston and Portland, OR, at a higher rate than any other city.
- Many workers reported cost of living as the most significant reason for moving states for a new job.
Many Americans starting new jobs are shipping up to Boston — and Oregon. It might be paying off for them.
New data from the Bank of America Institute looks at where job switchers are moving for those new roles, and which cities are increasingly luring in more new workers. Among those who moved to Boston in the third quarter of 2023, 14.2% changed jobs after the move. Portland was also at 14%, while Chicago was slightly below 14%.
Though many see New York City as a top destination for taking a new job, just over 11% of movers to the city started a new position.
San Francisco had one of the lowest shares of job changers moving in at under 11%. This was only slightly ahead of Miami and Los Angeles. Bank of America wrote this may be due to people returning to the office after working remotely, so they're not actually job changers.
Data was pulled from roughly 45 million Bank of America customers with accounts open for every quarter between fourth quarter 2018 and third quarter 2023. Some people who moved in the last month of the quarter may not be reflected.
The top reason that would motivate workers to move was cost of living, according to Bank of America. But 44% of respondents in their Homebuyer Insights Report said that their career or job would motivate them to take the plunge in a new state.
And with job switchers in some states racking up big wage gains, migrations could show a new chapter in the post-2020 remote recovery: Workers realizing that the best way to get a raise is to move to where work is. It's a pretty stark contrast to those who would rather quit or take a pay cut than lose the ability to stay remote. And those moves and raises come as the share of workers moving for a new role sits near record lows.
Though Boston had the highest percentage of movers, the city still experienced net losses since the start of 2020, particularly among millennials. Gen Zers have stayed at comparably higher rates in Boston.
On the whole, Columbus and a handful of Sun Belt cities had the largest third-quarter population inflows, particularly in Austin, San Antonio, Las Vegas, and Tampa. For many of these cities, Bank of America found population change and job growth went hand-in-hand. Austin, for example, had quarter-over-quarter population growth of 0.2% and job growth of 0.9% over the same period.
Larger cities such as San Francisco, Miami, and Los Angeles saw net population loss for the third quarter. Bank of America data shows Miami has had a net population loss for seven straight quarters.
Bank of America also compared raises for those who moved into cities. Interestingly, even while Boston saw the greatest movers, it isn't the best place to move for a raise — although Bostonians who stayed put saw their median pay go down.
Instead, workers who moved into Seattle saw a 15% median year-over-year increase in pay, followed by just over 12% for new San Franciscans. Those pay bumps for new residents come as tech firms increasingly try to lure workers back into the office — and with those raises, workers might find it worth their while to make the move.
Have you recently moved to a new state for work? Reach out to these reporters at nsheidlower@insider.com and jkaplan@insider.com.