Secondary cities rise, increasingly attractive to growing pool of workers

Originally published at IREI.com

San Francisco, Chicago and New York City are all experiencing drastic changes to their economies due to various repercussions of the pandemic, according to Graceada Partners in its comprehensive report on the future of office space.

Destination cities and smaller secondary markets that offer attractive cost of living and amenities will draw more workers with flexible work-from-home schedules. Those workers may ultimately be coming from primary markets such as San Francisco, Chicago and New York City.

According to consulting organization Global Workplace Analytics, 25 percent to 30 percent of the U.S. workforce will work from home on a regular basis by 2022. As some companies make those permanent moves for workers, it opens up the option for workers to move. This has the advantage of bringing good paying jobs to desirable secondary cities. Cities will be competing to attract workers rather than corporations. This gives workers options they never had before, such as leaving the city and buying land for a lower cost of living and higher quality of life.