The ability to work remotely is causing people to leave major cities. How is Philly impacted?

People who work remotely became more likely to move to a new city during the COVID-19 pandemic and in the years following, data shows. And while that meant many left expensive metros, such as Los Angeles and New York City, Philadelphia was less rocked by the trend.

The pandemic prompted an abrupt shift in the number of people working remotely and the number of remote workers willing to pick up and go somewhere new, according to Census Bureau American Community Survey data recently analyzed by the New York Times. In fact, during the pandemic, people who worked from home became more likely to move than any other worker.

But the impact wasn’t the same everywhere.

While many cities saw increases in the number of remote workers residing there, the data for 2020 through 2021 shows that expensive metros lost more residents than they gained, the Times’ analysis showed.

While cities such as New York, Chicago, Washington, and Seattle all saw a higher percentage of workers who are remote living in them than Philadelphia, they also saw significantly higher numbers of remote workers moving out.

New York lost 116,000 remote workers that year. Chicago lost 29,000, Washington saw 11,000 leave, and Seattle said bye to 3,000. Meanwhile, Philadelphia only lost an estimated 1,000 remote-working residents, placing it in a neutral zone compared to those cities, which the Times considered in the red or “loss” zone.

Larry Eichel, senior adviser to the Pew Charitable Trusts’ Philadelphia research and policy initiative, said it’s hard to quantify exact net gains or losses from survey data, but it’s safe to say the city broke about even when it comes to remote-work migration patterns, according to the most current data.

“Philly clearly looks like it’s not as affected as other places,” said Eichel, who has researched remote work’s impact on the city’s economy. “What these numbers show is that a lot of people who can work fully remotely moved in the early part of the pandemic because they had the ability to.”

Areas such as Austin, Denver, Boston, and Raleigh saw upticks both in the number of remote workers moving to the city as well as net increases in the number of remote workers living there. The Times considered those cities in the “gain” zone.

Part of this phenomenon is because remote work became more normalized during the pandemic.

Suddenly, employees could retain their current job while working in a more exciting or more affordable town. This was especially the case in cities such as New York and San Francisco, where tech employees participated in what was dubbed the “Great American Migration of 2020″ and the “urban exodus.”

The most current data only stretches through 2021 with people being surveyed at different times of the year, so it’s hard to gain a full look at how cities have been impacted.

“It’s hard to tell because remote work and hybrid work keeps changing,” Eichel said.

Other Census Bureau data has shown that younger generations were flocking to Philadelphia in 2021, which some attributed to the city’s remote-work potential.

“With the increase of remote or hybrid work schedules, Philadelphia is an ideal home base or work-from-anywhere destination for Gen Zers looking for that ultimate urban live-work-play experience,” Visit Philadelphia CEO Angela Val told The Inquirer in March.

» READ MORE: Gen Z is moving to big cities — including Philly — while older generations flee

Experts caution that population datasets are evolving because they include phenomena including students returning home from temporarily closed colleges and affluent urbanites escaping to their beach homes.

Eichel also said the focus on remote employees doesn’t account for another significant set of workers in Philly: hybrid employees.

“I think it’s important to think about remote and hybrid work as two different phenomena,” he said. “When it comes to hybrid work, it makes a big difference for the city whether you’re coming into the office two days a week or four days a week.”

He added that evidence suggests some employers are requiring employees to come into the office more often, which can contribute to a city’s economy.

Comcast recently announced employees would need to report to the office four days per week instead of three starting this fall. A SEPTA spokesperson said the company looked forward to serving the potential uptick in commuters. A pizzeria owner within the Comcast building said the in-office requirement increase will help his bottom line.

» READ MORE: At Philly’s largest job fair, some candidates were seeking hybrid schedules, but fewer employers were on hand to hire

Eichel said hybrid work is starting to be reflected more in population studies.

But in the meantime, it’s too soon to tell what that means for Philly’s future.