The job hunt for white collar workers is taking them across the country.
In the past two years, with the exception of New York City, the share of white-collar job postings across the country shrank in many major cities and are popping up in smaller metros in the South and Midwest, according to new data from Revelio Labs, a workforce intelligence company.
Leaving major job hubs in the Northeast is not new, but job postings data over the last two years shows where white-collar opportunities are shifting in the US.
Washington, DC, Boston, and Philadelphia saw the biggest declines in their share of national white-collar job postings between Q2 2023 and Q2 2025.
Job postings are leaving much of the Northeast and moving toward the South and Midwestern regions of the country.
In Washington, DC, Elon Musk and the DOGE office led the effort in firing an estimated 216,000 federal workers. While these layoffs occurred across the country, the DC area saw the greatest loss of workers.
Those leaving the Northeast have had their reservations about moving to places like the Midwest. The culture, food, and lifestyle were the biggest changes for Gabi Stevenson, who moved from Philadelphia to Grand Rapids, Michigan.
Even as housing and other costs rise, New York City had the fastest-growing share of white collar jobs among the metro areas Revelio analyzed.
Even with New York City’s high cost of living and low adjusted salary, the city still attracts a high share of new graduates, according to a Gusto report last year. Rents rose quickly last year in New York City and priced out many tech workers.
Some aspiring NYC transplants scoured for over a year to finally land a job. The in-demand job market paired with expensive rental prices presents a difficult challenge for those in the city’s metro area.
Louisville, Kentucky, and St. Louis ranked second and third, respectively, but did not see nearly the same growth as New York.
Low costs of living are some of the key forces driving people to these southern states. Housing and grocery costs are far cheaper in these cities compared to the Northeast’s cost of living.
Moving to the South and the Midwest is not uncommon as lower costs of living and job opportunities help reel in more residents.
It’s not just white-collar work. Warehouse employment is skyrocketing in metros across the country. In 2021, New Haven, Connecticut, Raleigh, North Carolina, and the Nashville metro saw the largest spikes.
