Share with friends and circles of friends with wechat scanning QR code < / P > < p > < p > on July 18, more and more American towns began to attract skilled employees of large companies to settle down locally and work remotely by paying cash subsidies and other allowances. This approach has attracted more highly paid technology industry employees to leave Silicon Valley and changed the local economy of American towns

some similar projects have existed for many years, but they have attracted widespread attention in the past two years. According to statistics, there were at least 24 such projects in the United States last October. Today, 71 towns have signed contracts with makemymove, an Indianapolis based company, to build such projects

since these projects are specifically aimed at high paid remote workers, the main participants in these projects are scientific and technological workers. Employees participating in the Tulsa remote employee incentive program in Oklahoma come from various technology enterprises such as adobe, airbnb, Amazon, apple, Dell, meta, Google, IBM, Microsoft, LYFT, Netflix, Oracle and Siemens

the local government provides up to 12000 US dollars in cash incentives, fitness subsidies, free nannies and office space for people who are willing to relocate to the local area

due to the relatively small scale of these economic development projects, even small communities can participate. Greensburg, Indiana, is also one of the towns that do this, with a local permanent population of only 12193

skeptics may ask why local economic development projects should spend money to subsidize those highly paid Silicon Valley employees. Since these remote workers do not come to small towns to find jobs locally, they are also a fresh stimulus to some areas that are excluded from the technology boom by large technology companies

some of these companies are very satisfied with the change of events. In April this year, airbnb, a housing rental platform, said that almost all employees can work in any place they like and retain full wages. A company spokesman said that airbnb even promoted its products as a way for remote workers to find temporary accommodation

Mark Muro, who studies cities and the labor force at the Brookings Institution, believes that the success of attracting and retaining every remote worker in these places is like acquiring a small part of the new headquarters or corporate offices of a large technology company, and the expenditure and risk are much smaller

Jason Mathew is a product manager of IBM. He has traveled through major technology centers in the United States, including San Francisco and Austin, and found that the economic burden is getting higher and higher everywhere. To his surprise, Matthew found that Tulsa was his destination. "I feel unprecedented love and understanding here," he said

Tulsa remote, a privately funded project in Tulsa, attracted Matthew to settle here. This possibility, community belonging and sense of mission are exactly what the project wants to promote. The same is true of David Gora, who works at meta, the parent company of Facebook. He is responsible for screening third-party developers at meta to decide whether to visit social media platforms

"to some extent, I found myself," Gora said. Before moving, he had never lived in other parts of the United States except California. Other reasons why Gora likes Tulsa include that compared with the Silicon Valley city where he used to work and live, Tulsa does not need to commute, the cost of living is lower, and the quality of life is higher

Justin Harlan, the general director of the Tulsa remote project, said that the Tulsa remote project was launched in 2018 to attract remote workers as an example, but they only accounted for 3% of the total labor force in the United States at that time. According to the data of Gallup, a market research institution, by October 2021, the epidemic forced 45% of full-time employees in the United States to work remotely part-time. More towns in the United States decided to try to attract them to settle locally

in terms of the number of people attracted, the Tulsa remote project is the largest of these projects, which has an obvious advantage over most projects. The Tulsa remote project is funded by the local charity George Kaiser Family Foundation. In 2020 alone, the foundation invested $181million in various projects. In contrast, almost all similar projects in the United States must be disbursed from the local economic development budget

by the end of 2021, the Tulsa remote project has brought 1360 people to the city. By the end of 2022, the total number may exceed 2400

from chasing factories to chasing technology employees

"this is a new version of chasing factories," said Roy bahat, head of venture capital company and former economic development official of New York City. Local governments in the United States once competed with each other to attract factories, offices or other infrastructure that can create jobs to the local market. Baxter added, "it's like what Ohio did when it promised to invest more than $2 billion to attract a microchip factory." He was referring to Ohio, which persuaded Intel to locate its new plant in the state through various incentives

a study commissioned by the Tulsa remote project concluded that every time such a project brings two people to the city, a new job will be created

economist Enrico Moretti's research shows that when the company's office moves to the local area, every additional high-wage scientific and technological post will create five more jobs in the fields of health care, education and services. This is because business involves not only people, but also funds such as the construction and maintenance of facilities and the payment of commercial real estate taxes

Gora said that the possibility, community belonging and sense of mission of Tulsa attracted him to this city. His girlfriend also recently moved to this city

moderate impact

many cities and towns do not have enough budgets to attract large companies to set up whole offices or factories locally. Although the impact of introducing a small number of remote technology employees on the local economy is limited, the investment required is also much smaller

this is the case with the project Doug Waltz participated in. Waltz is a typical Amazon engineer, who is well paid, likes various benefits, and enjoys the flexibility of remote work

one of his atypical features is that as a newcomer among the 12000 permanent residents of Greensburg, Indiana, waltz is estimated to be the only Amazon Engineer within a radius of 50 kilometers. The package of incentives he received when he moved to his new home included a direct $5000 reward and a one-year free officePublic space, fitness membership, and more time to care for children aged 1 and 3

compared with the telework project in Tulsa, the project scale in Greensburg is very small, and the annual budget is only used to attract a few telework employees

community and quality of life are crucial

many teleworkers say what incentives they can get to encourage them to consider where to move, but it is not the reason to persuade them to move. For waltz, wanting to be closer to his wife's family in California was the deciding factor. As a product manager of IBM, Matthew wants to start a family although he is single. For him, Tulsa may make him realize his ideal life. Gora decided to stay in Tulsa, partly because his girlfriend recently moved in with him

other influencing factors such as inflation and the U.S. housing crisis are also important. Today, Gora bought a three bedroom apartment with a yard in Tulsa, which is cheaper than a one bedroom apartment without air conditioning or dishwasher in Santa Clara, California. Gora said that although meta implemented salary cuts for employees who moved to areas with lower living costs, it still saved a lot of money and the quality of life was much higher than before

since moving to Tulsa in 2020, Matthew has become the landlord of the four unit apartment building where he lives, and has been selected as the vice chairman of his community association. He has also launched a sideline project in the form of new start-ups and applications

"what keeps me here is an opportunity", Matthew said, "it's a person". (Chenchen)