Dive Brief:
- With Apple’s announcement of a planned $1 billion facility in Austin, the trend of big tech moving away from Silicon Valley seems to be gaining momentum, according to MIT Sloan Experts. Apple will also expand to San Diego and Culver City, California, Seattle, Pittsburgh, Boulder, Colorado and New York within the next three years.
- Silicon Valley hosts many of the country’s tech giants, including Google, Facebook, Intel, Cisco Systems and Oracle, and it will continue to be Apple's HQ, MIT said.
- For smaller companies and startups, a Silicon Valley outpost may give clout, but many can only afford to keep small teams in the expensive zip code, according to MIT.
Dive Insight:
With a boom in tech roles opening up, employers hoping to fill jobs in cloud computing, machine learning and other disciplines must overcome the talent shortage first. Though Silicon Valley is well-known for its tech talent pool, housing costs in the area could have pushed Apple to prioritize expansion elsewhere, MIT speculated. As costs continue to rise in traditional industry hubs, organizations may continue to push out to locales that give them more hiring options and help keep overhead low.
According to MIT, the cost of living in the Bay Area has already pushed many organizations to use "less-costly satellite offices, remote co-working spaces, or other remote-work options for the majority of their employees." Remote work options can save money, and they may also be a draw for potential talent.
Recent data have indicated that a majority of workers want a choice in where they work, and more than half of American workers already have access to some form of remote option in their jobs. Employers also report planning to expand these opportunities in the future. Talent pros involved in deciding where work is done may want to consider how employee experience will carry over to new locations.
