Pandora’s decision to expand operations in Atlanta feeds speculation about tech companies’ intention to move further away from Silicon Valley (and California generally). Business costs in the area alone have gone up due to the state’s well-established compliance burden, not to mention real estate values.
Workers in the tech sector are feeling the pain, too — so much so that one San Francisco startup, Zapier, is giving its employees a $10,000 bonus just to move out of the Bay Area. Zapier CEO Wade Foster cited cost-of-living expenses for the company’s working families as a key motivator behind the decision, saying it would open up opportunities for remote work.
Overall, hiring growth in the Valley has slowed in recent years, according to data from state labor officials, while an increasing share of tech sector job candidates are looking past the area for new jobs in cities like Boston, Houston and Austin. A majority of those tech workers looking for new jobs do not believe that working in Silicon Valley is “important” for their careers, an analysis from Indeed shows.
View Article