One of the common talking points when it comes to the pandemic’s impact on US culture is how remote work “new normals” empowered individuals to move. We’re talking about the exodus from cities like San Francisco and New York so that remote workers could take the opportunity for a quality of life change. Now, a Yelp study confirms those anecdotal observations.
How is Yelp positioned to determine this you may ask? Essentially, it analyzed search locations on its platforms and how that differs in the aggregate from 2019. When comparing apples to apples, this can be a meaningful sample of US behavior.
So what did it find out? At a high level, there has been significant population migration from Western and Northeastern states to Southern and Midwestern areas. The former represents the San Franciscos and New Yorks of the world, while the latter is all about emerging cities like Austin and Nashville.
Besides consumer migratory patterns, Yelp’s study also uncovered positive economic impact on local businesses in these destination cities. Specifically, these states saw a higher average increase in new business openings in 2022 compared with 2019. This applies across nearly all business categories.
“Yelp’s data highlights that, while there have been numerous macro-economic forces at play over the past three years, many local economies across the U.S. are growing – particularly in states like South Dakota and Wyoming.” Yelp data science Manager Samantha Auerbach told Localogy Insider. “As a result, we’ve seen significant growth of new business openings in home and local services businesses, which have surpassed pre-pandemic levels, demonstrating that as remote workers are putting down roots in these new locations local business owners are gaining new economic opportunities.”
Highlight Reel
What else did Yelp’s study uncover? Going more granular, we’ve plucked out the highlights for you, which you can find listed below.
– Comparing 2019 to 2022, about 25% of U.S. states (including Washington, D.C.) experienced a
decrease in their share of search locations, most notably Washington, D.C. (down 26%), New
York (down 12%), California (down 12%), Nevada (down 12%) and Oregon (down 12%).
– Comparably, the states with the highest increase in their share of search locations are South
Dakota (up 56%), North Dakota (up 54%), West Virginia (up 33%), Wyoming (up 31%) and
Mississippi (up 29%).
– Approximately 30% of U.S. cities experienced a decrease in the share of searches compared to 2019, with several of them concentrated in states like New York and California, including Brooklyn, NY (down 48%); San Francisco, CA (down 25%); Beverly Hills, CA (down 24%); Santa Monica, CA (down 23%); Manhattan, NY (down 21%) and Los Angeles, CA (down 13%).
– As people reportedly flocked south, Yelp data shows increases in the share of search locations in Texas cities, compared to 2019, particularly San Antonio, TX (up 29%) and Austin, TX (up 18%). Dozens of popular Florida cities also saw large increases in the same time period, including Tallahassee (up 56%), St. Petersburg (up 23%), West Palm Beach (up 12%) and Tampa (up 10%).
– States where People are Relocating Saw Higher Average Business Growth – Driven by Home and Local Services
– New home and local services businesses saw notable average increases in both states that saw an increase in share of searches (up 57% and 47% respectively) and states that saw a decrease in share of searches (up 31% and 19%).
– Meanwhile, shopping, bars and nightlife, active life and restaurant businesses have not yet fully bounced back to pre-pandemic levels with each seeing a decrease in new business openings in both states that saw an increase and decrease in share of searches.
– The five states with the highest increases in share of searches – South Dakota, North Dakota, West Virginia, Wyoming and Mississippi – saw a significant average increase in new local services (up 78%), home services (up 76%) and beauty services (up 52%) businesses, compared to 2019.
– The five states with the highest decreases in share of searches – Washington, D.C., New York, California, Nevada and Oregon – saw decreases in new business openings in Shopping (down 22%), Active Life (down 19%), Bars and Nightlife (down 9%), Arts and Entertainment (down 8%) and Restaurants (down 7%), compared to 2019.
So there you have it. We’ll keep our eyes out for more data from Yelp or any other sources that validate the post-pandemic consumer migratory patterns… and the impact on the SMB sector.
