Where Millennials Are Going, Businesses Should Follow

An increasing number of well-educated, younger workers are settling down in less expensive, and more livable suburbs, creating new business opportunities, according to two housing experts. 

Millennials are increasingly ditching big cities and settling down in the suburbs as they enter or approach their 30s. Joel Kotkin and Wendell Cox of the Center for Opportunity Urbanism say that employers will have the most opportunities attracting talent in these areas, "particularly those developing amenities like theaters, ethnic restaurants and music venues," per ChiefExecutive.net. MIT’s Alan Berger says that the Millennial suburb will be more environmentally sustainable and include greater tech connectivity. Minorities and immigrants account for 45 percent of all Millennials, are also settling in such areas in greater numbers. 

Some suggest that firms must move to expensive, large urban cores to attract talent, particularly millennials. This assessment needs to be rethought. The labor shortage impacts not only highly coveted tech talent but also those in fields like supply chain management and manufacturing. In fact, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, IT is expected to grow by barely 0.2 percent in the next decade, well below health, energy, construction, urb hospitality and professional and business service sectors.

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