Companies have long moved sales and customer-service jobs to cheaper cities like Phoenix. Silicon Valley companies were increasingly putting jobs in engineering hubs in cities like Austin, Texas, and Toronto. Google and Facebook have said they will allow employees to work remotely until 2021. But if workers untethered from their offices flee the state, or companies start basing more high-paid workers elsewhere, it will have huge ramifications for California’s outlook. Despite the diversity of California’s vast economy, there is near-universal agreement on one barrier to growth: the exorbitant cost of housing.

Source: New York Times October 05, 2020 15:45 UTC