Big-firm diaspora could bring tech worker influx to Idaho

COVID-19 could lead to an unexpected windfall in Idaho: an influx of technology workers.

Several major Silicon Valley companies — most notably Facebook and Twitter — have announced that, as far as they’re concerned, this working-from-home thing is going pretty well and people can keep doing it, from wherever they like.

That could include places like Boise.

“If other giant companies follow suit, tech employment could start to shift away from expensive hubs like Silicon Valley, Seattle and New York,” wrote the New York Times. “The option to work from home could also provide more reason for tech workers who complain that their enviable salaries still aren’t enough to buy a home in San Francisco or San Jose to consider settling in other parts of the country.”

Boise was recently named by Moody’s Analytics as being one of the top 10 cities with the potential to recover from coronavirus, noted Bill Connors, president and CEO of the Boise Metro Chamber, in an email message.

“Interior cities like Boise have become very attractive alternatives to the Western coastal cities,” Connors said. “Our in-migration demographics prove that out. The future for interior second-tier cities on both sides of the nation looks bright for the next 25 years and beyond. Cities like Boise in the West, or Greenville, South Carolina, in the East, are both examples of places that are taking advantage of the migration of young skilled employees looking for affordability, less crime, less congestion and more quality of life. The work-from-home options and the emphasis on more open spaces that have come out of this crisis will add more fuel to this migration.”

Accelerating the process

Siting technology companies here isn’t unusual. A number of technology companies have outposts in Idaho, particularly around Boise, to save money on office space. But COVID-19 could accelerate this process, not just due to people being concerned about living in high-density areas but also because we’ve all figured out how to work remotely.

“COVID-19 has accelerated a shift with remote employees that we have seen over the past several years,” said Jay Larsen, president and CEO of the Idaho Technology Council, in an email message. “Think about how many Zoom or video conference platform calls you were on before COVID-19 and how many conferences you have been a part since the shelter directive? We have utilized video conferencing to the extent that we now know how easy it is to connect with business colleagues and customers and that we optimize our time. This medium will allow people to still perform their job, but allow them to do it remotely.”

The result is that employees with strong technical skills will be able to work remotely from locations that meet their quality-of-life objectives, Larsen said.

“This plays very favorably into Boise and Idaho’s favor, and we will continue to see a strong in-migration of talent of people who will work remotely from Idaho companies as well as companies located outside the state.”

Salary adjustments

Facebook, in particular, has presented a downside: the company said it would adjust salaries based on the cost of living in employee locations. Again, this isn’t unusual. Of the companies at last year’s DevOpsDays recruiting for Boise-based employees, many, though not all, indicated they based salaries partly on employee location. That’s been true for years, Larsen said.

Still, the cost of living differences could still make it worthwhile for a coastal tech employee to make the move. According to the Best Places cost of living index, Boise is 61.5% cheaper than San Francisco, particularly in housing. And Idaho could still leverage the associated benefits of those employees’ salaries, which would still end up higher than many of those in the state.

“We would still enjoy the economic activity, property tax, sales tax and so on created by every new resident,” Connors said.