LA, NYC suffer largest losses of workers – here’s where they’re fleeing

New York City and Los Angeles, and their surrounding areas, suffered the largest exodus of workers as the high cost of living sent them fleeing to more affordable destinations in the South and West.

LA, Long Beach and Anaheim posted a net loss of 17,477 workers in 2023, according to a MarketWatch analysis of the most-recent full-year data from the US Census Bureau.

The Big Apple, along with Newark and Jersey City, weren’t far behind with a net loss of 15,940 workers, according to government data.

“We’ve seen people moving to warmer places, the Sun Belt, for a while, but part of what we’re seeing is important cost-of-living differences,” said Daniel Shoag, economist at Case Western Reserve University, who researches how wages have failed to keep up with costs.

“Even the parts of the country where housing has been cheaper, you see rising housing prices, and housing is just kind of expensive relative to income, [especially] given interest rates.” 

The median income of the 1.43 million people quitting the New York area was $95,220, according to the data.

In the Los Angeles area, the median income of the nearly 1 million who left was $91, 960.

“The standard of living doesn’t necessarily line up with wages how it used to. If you were to look back several decades ago, places that offered the highest wages also kind of offered the highest wages after your housing prices,” Shoag told The Post.

“Moving to a place with a higher wage was a way of getting a higher standard of living, and now you see these migration patterns don’t really reflect that. People aren’t moving to the highest-wage parts of the country anymore.”

Meanwhile, all of the top 15 metro areas for attracting workers in 2023 were in the south and southwestern parts of the US, including cities in Texas, Florida, Arizona and Tennessee.

All of the top 15 metro areas for attracting workers in 2023 were located in the southern and southwestern parts of the US, including cities in Texas, Florida, Arizona and Tennessee.

The Dallas area saw the largest net gain of any city with 16,903 new workers in 2023. Other cities that attracted more workers than they lost were Houston (11,954), Jacksonville, Fla., (10,558) and the Nashville area (10,492).

“Moving to a place with a higher wage was a way of getting a higher standard of living, and now you see these migration patterns don’t really reflect that. People aren’t moving to the highest-wage parts of the country anymore.”

Meanwhile, all of the top 15 metro areas for attracting workers in 2023 were in the south and southwestern parts of the US, including cities in Texas, Florida, Arizona and Tennessee.

All of the top 15 metro areas for attracting workers in 2023 were located in the southern and southwestern parts of the US, including cities in Texas, Florida, Arizona and Tennessee.

The Dallas area saw the largest net gain of any city with 16,903 new workers in 2023.

Other cities that attracted more workers than they lost were Houston (11,954), Jacksonville, Fla., (10,558) and the Nashville area (10,492).

This study only counted US workers, so it does not reflect the overall migration trends including unemployed individuals, the elderly and children, and it does not examine the impact of surging international immigration.