Global cities compete to attract and retain talented residents
NEW YORK, UNITED STATES — A major new study reveals which global cities are succeeding at attracting and retaining talented residents in today’s hyper-mobile world.
Researchers found that the war for talent has shifted from inside corporations to the places where skilled workers choose to live, as remote work has become the norm.
“Place-related factors like cleanliness, safety, housing, and amenities top economic factors like career and business opportunities in the war for residents,” said Richard Florida and his co-authors at the Fast Company.
“Corporations can no longer aim to simply “buy” talent with higher salaries or better career opportunities.”
The study analyzed LinkedIn data on talent flows alongside BCG’s Cities of Choice survey of over 25,000 residents across 79 global cities. It categorized cities into four groups:
- Talent Magnets like London, United Kingdom; Toronto and Vancouver, Canada; Berlin, Germany; Singapore; Stockholm, Sweden; and Madrid, Spain, excel at both attracting and retaining skilled workers, offering economic opportunity and high livability. The majority of them are included in the Economist’s most livable cities rankings.
- High Turnover cities like New York, the tech hub of San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Miami in the United States; Paris, France; Dublin, Ireland; Amsterdam, Netherlands; Zurich, Germany; Dubai and Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates attract talent well but struggle with long-term retention.
- Stagnant Cities lag in attracting new residents but retain existing talent better. These are geographically isolated cities like Auckland and Wellington, New Zealand; Tokyo and Osaka, Japan, which suffer from cultural and linguistic isolation; and Hong Kong.
- Brain Drain Cities in emerging markets like Istanbul, Turkey, São Paulo, Brazil, and Mumbai, India, underperform in attracting and retaining skilled migrants.
“Just as corporations work to build long-term brand value and retain customers, these cities must work with their communities to provide more enduring value to the talented people they wish to attract and retain,” the researchers said.
Meanwhile, American white-collar employees live substantially further from their workplaces than before the pandemic. The average distance between homes and offices more than doubled to 27 miles in 2023 from 10 miles in 2019, according to Stanford University and payroll provider Gusto.
Florida suggests transforming downtown regions into destinations for entertainment, culture, and socializing, aiming to revitalize these areas amidst changing work and living patterns.
