TALENT DRAIN GROWING AS HOUSING CRISIS DEEPENS

Net new arrivals to the Golden State have fallen 17% since February, a new LinkedIn report finds. While the Bay Area historically has shown strong economic growth numbers, we’re now seeing increasing competition for our high-skilled from new tech hubs such as Seattle, Portland, and Austin. These cities are gaining the most employees from the Bay Area, even accounting for the number of workers coming to the Bay Area. The gap is growing, driven by one major contributor – these other regions producing housing to meet population growth. The Bay Area’s struggle to produce housing to meet our growing workforce has led to skyrocketing housing costs and a talent drain in our region. With Bay Area employers struggling to find talent to fill their most in-demand positions, the Bay Area Council is working at both ends of the spectrum: with state and local government to increase housing supply and bring down cost, and with employers to seed home-grown talent and retrain their workers. To engage with the Workforce of the Future Committee please contact SVP Public Policy Linda Bidrossian; to engage with the Housing Committee please contact SVP Public Policy Matt Regan.