Perhaps not intentional on the NYT's part, but I found the phrasing of "college graduates" deeply misleading: to me it implies a departure of younger demographics from cities, when the article is <i>actually</i> about college educated white-collar workers in the 40-to-64 demographic. In other words, the established family households to "empty nester" demographic.<p>In fact, the only mention of <i>younger</i> college graduates is in a wiggle phrase with no attached statistic:<p>> Younger educated workers were at first a bulwark against that trend, but have increasingly migrated away from these regions, too.<p>(The same can be said for the article's statistics -- it's misleading, at best, to limit the analysis to 2020 and 2021.)
This is fantastic.<p>Young folks get to take advantage of wage arbitrage. Midwestern towns gutted by 40 years of foreign slave wages get an influx of new blood and a revitalized service sector. Two, seemingly warring, demographics get to cross pollinate and empathize with each other while collectively giving the middle finger to an unholy Government/Big Corp alliance trying to corral everyone in a few big geographical regions.<p>Plea to young knowledge workers... Don't give in on remote work, take advantage of it.
The new labor crisis is fairly wild. All the really nice places to live are becoming so expensive that there is no local labor pool. Many of the wonderful mountain towns of Colorado for example are also suffering this fate.
Buried the lede:<p>> The overall migration rate in America today is historically low, and mobility has fallen since the 1980s for all kinds of demographic groups.
There are a lot of policy issues where it feels like it's difficult to get anything done. Housing is one where ordinary people can make a real difference - and are. So much of this is at a local or state level where a small, dedicated group can really change the conversation.<p>It's also an issue where the "ideological sorting hat" hasn't lumped it into a partisan category, yet. Montana just passed a bipartisan housing deal that's really good: <a href="https://www.sightline.org/2023/05/09/montanas-big-bipartisan-housing-deal/" rel="nofollow">https://www.sightline.org/2023/05/09/montanas-big-bipartisan...</a><p>Groups like <a href="https://yimbyaction.org/2021/" rel="nofollow">https://yimbyaction.org/2021/</a> and <a href="https://welcomingneighbors.us/" rel="nofollow">https://welcomingneighbors.us/</a> are a great way to get involved.
> The overall migration rate in America today is historically low, and mobility has fallen since the 1980s for all kinds of demographic groups.<p>Nearly every single economic disadvantage the "not rich" endures always goes back to Reagan.
The "obvious" solution, raising wages, would add fuel to the engines of inflation.<p>No one who understands what out-of-control inflation is like wants that.<p>Central banks, in particular, don't want that.
Once again the market sorts things out itself. And in the areas losing young talent, it will also sort itself out. Nothing needs to be done, just observe what is happening and wait.