Are these the latest hotspots to find work? The three cities where job opportunities are thriving as hubs like San Francisco and New York slow

Job hunters may have a better chance of finding work within the sunbelt rather than New York.

States in the West had some of the highest jobs growth and salaries nationwide since 2020.

Now, individuals who live in major cities like San Francisco are moving their companies to other places that are more affordable.

'The influence of geography is diminishing,' said Lauren Mason, a senior principal at consulting firm Mercer.

New York City was a major job hotspot three years ago and even had a 19 percent pay premium over the national median, an advantage that became only 14 percent last year. 

Part of the reason for the hotspot shift is the rise in remote jobs, as well as the hundreds of thousands of college students within places like Orlando. 

States in the west had some of the highest jobs growth and salaries nationwide in 2020. However, they have significantly dropped over the last few years

Individuals who live in major cities like San Francisco are moving their companies to other places that are more affordable

Part of the reason for the hotspot shift is the rise in remote jobs

One former bay-area based company called Skillz relocated to Las Vegas in January.

According to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, the company was 'following a trend of tech companies' that have moved out of San Francisco or reduced its presence since the pandemic.

Skillz CEO Andrew Paradise also confirmed that the move was in part due to the cost of living in the Bay Area.

'It’s a real commentary on what the value equation is,' he said in 2023.

'People say, "Wow, the Bay Area makes so much money," but it’s so expensive that the average person can’t have a good quality of life.'

Many company employees who made six-figure salaries had a hard time in the San Francisco housing market, and they even needed to live with one or more roommates.

One factor Paradise also took into account was the safety of his employees after some of them had been assaulted outside the San Francisco headquarters.

San Francisco is not the only town companies are picking up and moving out of.

A CBRE study of 500 companies that relocated their headquarters between 2018 to 2023 indicated that they moved out of the Bay Area and New York City due to 'talent churn' as a result of the high cost of living and operating a business.  

The Sunbelt cities are now topping the charts and three of the most-talked about areas are Phoenix, Orlando and Albuquerque.

Skillz CEO Andrew Paradise confirmed in 2023 that one of the reasons why his company's headquarters moved to Las Vegas was the cost of living in the Bay Area

The Sunbelt cities are now topping the charts and three of the most talked about areas are Phoenix, Orlando and Albuquerque

Maximus Powers, a college graduate, spoke with the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) about his decision to move to Phoenix instead of San Francisco.

Powers is currently developing his own AI software, and he revealed that it's been easy to network in Phoenix.

'It feels like living in the future,' he told the WSJ. 

After San Francisco's 25 percent job posting loss since 2020, Phoenix's has risen by more than 60 percent.

Mark Muro, a Brookings Institution senior fellow, told the WSJ that Geopolitics is one of the things that's behind the job opportunity rise in the South.

After San Francisco's 25 percent job posting loss since 2020, Phoenix's has risen by more than 60 percent

Orlando is not only known as the location of Walt Disney World, it's also the Florida city that added 139,000 jobs in the last five years.

The job growth in Orlando comes in at more than 11 percent, while the New York and San Francisco metro areas only grew by 1.7 and 0.1 percent. 

Chief administrative officer Alejandro Perez of Bank of New York Mellon revealed to the WSJ that they plan to consolidate their workforce to Orlando in the next few years.

'We’re finding we have more employees attracted by weather and work-life balance,' he said.

'That’s allowing us to attract a broader talent pool than otherwise we’d be limited to in the Northeast alone.'

Several different companies are in the process of opening new Orlando locations and 35 percent of them are coming from overseas or California.

According to officials, Orlando has added 139,000 new jobs within the last five years, which is a more than 11 percent job growth 

Several different companies are in the process of opening new Orlando locations and 35 percent of them are coming from overseas or California

The job market in Albuquerque is looking food too according to the Secretary of the Tax and Revenue Department in New Mexico.

In fact, Stephanie Schardin Clarke said in an interview back in September 2023 that there were more jobs in the state than before the pandemic.

'New Mexico economy grew by 2.85 percent over the last year and the leading contributors included construction, retail trade and several other sectors,' Clarke told KRQE News.

'New Mexico is among the top job gainers amongst all states in the most recent month we had data for, that was June 2023, adding 7,300 jobs in that month.'

The New Mexico Department of Workforce Solutions also predicted a 7.7 percent job growth in New Mexico between 2014 and 2024.

That comes out to about 65,830 more jobs in New Mexico.

Stephanie Schardin Clarke stated in 2023 that there were more jobs in the state than before the pandemic last September