Talent Attraction Scorecard

The Sunbelt and Mountain West continue to lead other regions when it comes to talent attraction. The top 3 large metros are Sunbelt stars: Dallas, TX , Austin, TX, and Miami, FL. Nineteen of the top 20 highest ranking large metros are in the Sunbelt. Across metros of any size, only three of the top 50 highest-ranking regions are outside of the Sunbelt and Mountain West.

Talent attraction has not merely added people to the Sunbelt and Mountain West—it has redefined their economies. In coverage of our first-ever Talent Attraction Scorecard in 2015, Richard Florida, a prominent urban theorist, noted with interest that “lower-wage service economies in the Sunbelt” were towards the top of the ranking. Those lower-wage service economies have since matured into diversified economies anchored by tech, logistics, and advanced manufacturing. 

The Sunbelt is now home to new semiconductor production facilities in metros including Austin, Dallas, and Phoenix (ranked #15 for large metro areas).These new industries required attracting experts from around the world, not just around the nation. Nashville (#19 for large metros) once primarily known for tourism and entertainment, has emerged as a hub for healthcare management and headquarters operations. Amazon selected Nashville for its Operations Center of Excellence in 2018, committing to locate 5,000 jobs in corporate logistics, tech, and operations management, while in 2024, Oracle announced in Nashville would be home to its new global headquarters. In Florida, metros like Orlando and Tampa (#4 and #8 large metros) are seeing a surge in fintech and aerospace engineering. These trends signal more than population growth: they point to rising economic value through the talent and industry now there.

A similar transformation has occurred in the Mountain West. Lifestyle metros like St. George, UT, and Bozeman, MT (#2 and #8 mid-sized metros), have attracted remote workers, entrepreneurs, and tech talent, fueling a surge in knowledge-sector startups and creative industries. Larger metros like Denver and Salt Lake City (#35 and #53 large metros) have become magnets for software development, aerospace, and finance. Semiconductor investment is making an impact here, too, with Boise (#48 large metro) home to two new fabrication plants. 

Across our various metrics of talent attraction, these regions are strongest in overall job growth. And critically, job growth in these areas is not simply a function of high-growth industries concentrated there. We measure a region’s “competitive effect” as the job growth in a region that cannot be attributed to industry mix effects or national growth effects, and these regions also perform highly in this metric. 

This table shows the top 10 highest-ranking metro areas by overall score, by job growth, and by competitive effect. Every single one of these metros is in either the Sunbelt (☀️) or Mountain West (⛰️).

To be fair, geography has an enviable role to play in talent attraction for these regions: if someone is invested in moving to a city with warm winters or mountain scenery, there’s only so much that the Great Plains can offer in response. But not every Sunbelt and Mountain West metro is benefiting equally, and neither is every Northeastern and Midwestern metro losing talent at the same rate. No matter its geography, every region can take steps to attract talent and grow their local economies.

The top-performing metros in the Sunbelt and Mountain West did not transform by chance. They have been and remain at the top of the Talent Attraction Scorecard because of intentional, data-informed decisions that align economic development, workforce planning, and infrastructure investment around long-term goals. 

How Lightcast Can Help

Lightcast tools empower regions like the Sunbelt and Mountain West to solidify their top spot—and equip other communities to follow their lead.

• Developer: Provides insights into your region's economic and workforce strengths. With data from Developer, Employ Prince George’s built a compelling case for investment—unlocking $6M in funding and transforming services for local businesses and residents.

• Gazelle: Identifies growing companies that need the talent your region offers. See how Florida’s Great Northwest leveraged Gazelle to target fast-growing businesses, helping secure $75 million in investment.

• Talent Migration Dashboard: Shows where talent is coming from or moving to, including which industries and occupations they work in. Learn how Action Greensboro used these insights to uncover key migration patterns and build an award-winning talent attraction strategy.

Lifestyle destinations are attracting late-career professionals and pre-retirees seeking milder climates and nearby recreation as they transition toward retirement. Pre-retirees bring high, end-of-career incomes that bolster spending power and contribute to local taxes. Retirees, too, fuel demand for local services. However, because consumption, more than production, drives this kind of economic growth, it forms a bubble that could pop. 

The movement of the older population into select communities has dramatically increased labor market demand in those areas. Overall, the trend remains that the older the population, the slower the job growth—but for specific retirement hotspots—such as Wilmington, NC (#13 large metro) Prescott, AZ (#42 large metro), and several Florida communities including North Port-Bradenton-Sarasota (#7 large metro), Naples-Marco Island (#10 large metro), and Punta Gorda (#5 mid-sized metro)—the reverse has been true, as shown in the chart below. 

The Villages, Florida, is a special case. The master-planned development that makes up most of the community is age-restricted, and as a result, over 70% of people in the metro area of Wildwood-The Villages are over age 55—and that region ranks #1 in talent attraction for mid-sized metros, and #7 overall. This large and growing population of retirees supports a large and growing workforce of prime-age workers. 

This job growth benefits retirees and those looking to wind down their careers as they enjoy and can rely on robust, reliable services in growing economies. But these communities face future workforce risks that require data-informed planning now. As more of their populations reach retirement age, the labor force participation rate will decline, limiting the availability of workers and reducing the income tax base. At the same time, service costs will increase—particularly in healthcare and public services. Public service providers (fire, medical response, and transit) can begin adjusting their services now to better accommodate an older population of retirees in the future. 

This is a function of the “Rising Storm” creating demographic waves across the US (and the rest of the world). The Baby Boomers are retiring without enough younger workers to take their place, and a labor market that once expanded to create jobs for a surplus of workers, now faces a looming deficit. In the coming years, the US will not have enough workers to generate the goods and services we are currently accustomed to, a threat that is particularly acute because the growing population of older adults will also need more medical services and other elder care. 

By looking to successful examples of engaging older workers, retirement destinations can proactively get ahead of these trends. For example, in Boise, ID (#48 large metro), St. Luke’s Health System created a program offering flexible, part-time shifts to retired nurses and support staff, and Boise State University’s Osher Lifelong Learning Institute helps retirees transition into public-sector “community ambassador” roles. In Asheville, NC (#61 large metro), a large coalition of partners launched the “Experience Works” program, placing adults 55+ in part-time public sector or nonprofit roles in healthcare, senior care, and education. Participants receive training, small stipends, and job-matching services. Keeping older residents engaged in the workforce longer can help ease the strain on both the local tax base and on the demand for talent among regional businesses.

While re-engaging older workers can provide short-term relief, retirement destinations must also adopt long-term workforce strategies to meet the growing demands of an aging population. For example, healthcare workforce shortages are expected to intensify. The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects the need for more than 700,000 additional home health aides by 2033 (much faster increase than projections for the average job), along with substantial gaps in general practitioners, registered nurses, and allied health professionals. Communities that currently benefit from in-migration of older residents must invest now in healthcare training pipelines, retention strategies, and workforce infrastructure to avoid critical service disruptions in the decade ahead. Without a coordinated plan to sustain the workforce behind aging-related services, today’s population growth could become tomorrow’s capacity crisis.

How Lightcast Can Help

For years, Lightcast has provided industry-leading analysis of future demographic trends, and our research has helped countless communities understand how to prepare for the future. 

• The Demographic Drought series: We coined this term to describe the declining availability of working-age talent due to falling birth rates, aging populations, and shifting labor force participation. Our most recent report, The Rising Storm, explores how new talent shortfalls will reach the US before the end of the decade, and how the entire labor market can respond proactively. 

• Commissioned by local partners, Lightcast released a specialized Demographic Drought outlook for the state of Minnesota, tracking its job growth compared to its aging workforce and pre-pandemic trendlines. This kind of customized analysis is available for any region through Lightcast Professional Services. 

• Developer: Identifies overall retirement risk for a region, aging within occupations and industries, and offers customized maps to show age demographics down to the local level.

Remote work has become a fixture in the post-pandemic labor market. Lightcast has seen the national share of remote workers stabilize around 14%, but this rate can be much higher in remote work hubs, such as Boulder, CO (28%, #51 large metro), Austin, TX (23%, #2 large metro), and Portland, OR (20%, #152 large metro).

Remote work has benefitted medium-large metros in particular, allowing workers to relocate for urban amenities even if they do not have local jobs. Remote work has also helped create new hubs for tech workers and creative knowledge-sector workers, such as in Bend, OR (#20 large metro), and Bozeman, MT (#8 mid-sized metro), where workers relocated for the combination of professional connections and access to nature. Some communities have started to actively court remote-work newcomers with incentives like the Tulsa Remote program and Ascend West Virginia.

While remote work may benefit companies that are headquartered elsewhere, the remote-work migration is also transforming local economies: new cafes, startups, and arts scenes are springing up in these hubs. On the other hand, this influx can strain housing, increase traffic congestion, and drive up costs for long-term residents. Successful remote-work destinations must invest in expanding infrastructure and maintaining the quality of life that attracted people in the first place.

As the chart below shows, a metro area with a high share of remote workers is correlated with prime-age in-migration, attracting the population that drives long-term regional competitiveness. 

Affordability is also key, and policies at the state and local level can have a dramatic impact on cost of living. At the state level, policies around income tax rates, business regulation, education funding, and infrastructure investment inform talent attraction. States with no income tax, for example, often attract high earners and remote workers—indeed, four of the top five states for talent attraction have no income tax, and all eight states with no income tax are in the top half of the ranking.

At the local level, the focus shifts to quality of life, housing affordability, mobility, and access to services. Local governments influence how easily workers can find a place to live, get to their jobs, access childcare, and engage in civic life. Cities and counties that invest in zoning reform, public transit, walkable neighborhoods, and inclusive workforce partnerships outperform peers in attracting and retaining residents. For example, Austin, TX (#2 large metro), has adopted density-friendly zoning reforms and expanded its use of affordable housing bonds, aiming to preserve affordability amid explosive population and job growth. And Raleigh, NC (#23 large metro), legalized duplexes and triplexes in formerly single-family zones to increase housing diversity and affordability. 

It’s not difficult to see the similarities between this trend and the previous one: the same quality-of-life advantages that attract remote workers also attract retirees and those at the end of their career. For communities, this means that a new front has opened in the war for talent attraction, because while in the past, regions only had to attract employers and know that the employees would follow, that’s no longer the case when workers have the freedom to opt out of the office. It’s no longer enough to be attractive to companies. You have to be attractive to individuals, too. 

How Lightcast Can Help

Lightcast offers data that regions can leverage to take advantage of the dynamics of remote work and attract talent through quality of life and affordability strategies.

• Developer: Integrates Census and IRS data to illuminate broader regional trends, including remote work density, commuting patterns, and the relationship between remote work and local economic development. Developer also provides a Cost of Living Index for every county, metro region, and state, so you can benchmark affordability against competing regions.

• Profiles and Job Postings datasets in Developer: Enable you to identify where remote workers are concentrated by comparing company dynamics. See whether remote workers are already in your region, or whether employers in your region are listing remote positions to hire people from outside your area.

• Talent Migration Dashboard: Shows where new residents are coming from, which is helpful for understanding how remote workers are arriving in your region, what backgrounds they bring, and the careers they're pursuing. Use these insights to tailor attraction strategies and infrastructure investments to support incoming talent.

The growth of blue-collar jobs is not keeping pace with the growth of all jobs and of in-migration in the regions at the top of the Talent Attraction Scorecard. This imbalance risks undermining these regions’ ability to build new housing, maintain infrastructure, and provide essential services that depend on a stable base of skilled trades.

Many high-growth regions are now grappling with a blue-collar talent gap. As metros expand and attract degree-holding professionals, they often face a shortage of skilled tradespeople and manufacturing workers. This hollowing out of blue-collar jobs presents a risk to areas growing in population size. Rapid development boosts demand for electricians, plumbers, construction crews, machine operators, and truck drivers, yet despite overall population growth, employers report these roles are increasingly hard to fill.

Communities have deployed many different responses to this challenge. Some are investing in vocational education, apprenticeships, and campaigns to elevate trade careers. Other areas are strengthening community college and union apprenticeship partnerships. Still others are focusing on improving career awareness of the trades in high school and boosting the reputation of these jobs among their parents. By addressing the blue-collar gap now, fast-growing metros can sustain their growth and ensure that infrastructure and local industries keep pace with demand. 

How Lightcast Can Help

Lightcast supports communities in addressing blue-collar talent gaps through data-driven workforce development strategies and partnership facilitation.

• Developer: Identifies in-demand skills and occupations using real-time labor market data, helping you understand which blue-collar roles are most critical in your region. With this data, stakeholders can easily demonstrate regional employer needs to educational partners, along with wage outcomes and career pathways that contribute to building effective training programs.

• Analyst: Colleges can access this same kind of data in Analyst to proactively develop programs aligned with emerging demand in the skilled trades. For example, Cerritos College in Los Angeles uses Lightcast job postings data from Analyst to ensure that their automotive technician programs align with the hiring needs of regional employers, including GM and Ford.

• Custom Sector Analysis: Reveals the specific competencies employers need most, enabling you to align vocational education, apprenticeships, and community college programs with actual job requirements. This data can strengthen collaborations between employers, unions, and educational institutions. It can also help regional leaders demonstrate ROI to potential partners and build compelling cases for apprenticeship programs that address your region's most pressing blue-collar shortages.

Toyota's T-TEN automotive technician training, for example, has partnered with community colleges, vocational schools, and dealerships to deliver a training program for automotive technicians. This approach not only accelerates the development of skilled talent but also allows Toyota to influence curriculum design, ensuring it aligns with evolving job needs and supports long-term workforce retention. Lightcast supports colleges in those efforts by identifying in-demand skills and occupations using real-time labor market data, mapping program offerings to regional employer needs, and providing insights into wage outcomes and career pathways to help design programs. 

The top 50 highest-ranking large metros include new tech magnets like Miami, FL (#3 large metro), Raleigh, NC (#23 large metro), Provo, UT (#33 large metro), and Boise, ID (#48 large metro),as well as defense tech hubs like Huntsville, AL (#41 large metro), and Colorado Springs, CO (#28 large metro). Legacy tech centers like San Francisco, CA, Pittsburgh, PA, San Jose, CA, and Seattle, WA are now in the bottom 25 (ranked #193, #192, #180, and #175 for large metros, respectively). Information technology capabilities can be layered onto nearly any sector, and when they are, they create the kind of momentum that attracts skilled workers and drives local economic transformation.

One successful way to take a big bet on layering technology into an existing industry mix is to use an all-ecosystem approach. For example, in Raleigh, the combination of a robust research university ecosystem, a focused economic development apparatus, and policies to support affordability has made the region one of the most attractive places for biotech talent in the country. 

The Dallas Regional Chamber also demonstrates how data-driven investments in tech talent pipelines can pay off. With dashboards built on Lightcast data, they’ve focused on growing middle-skill IT and healthcare careers, which ensures employers, educators, and workforce leaders can align around the region’s future needs—helping to secure the highest ranking for large metros in this year’s rankings. 

How Lightcast Can Help

Lightcast data is comprehensive, but also granular: we can identify specific trends for individual skills, occupations, and industries, including those related to tech. 

• Custom Sector Analysis: Lightcast can identify emerging and in-demand skills based on billions of job postings, which enables reliable and actionable strategies based on real-world demand, not hypothetical projections. These precise terms enable efficient and effective strategies to recruit specific, high-impact skills and occupations.
  
  In Detroit, regional stakeholders identified “Advanced Mobility” as a target sector that focuses on the next generation of transportation. Lightcast experts worked with the Detroit Regional Chamber to develop a custom definition of the Advanced Mobility sector, which we then used to provide the chamber with a clearer understanding of sector-specific talent gaps in the region. These findings are informing future investments in education, workforce, development, work-based learning, and credentialing. Read the case study.
  
  Lightcast has also created a proprietary list of artificial intelligence skills, alongside the Stanford University Center for Human-Centered AI. This powers our own research and also enables enterprises, educators, and the public sector to quantify their own readiness around AI and plan for the future. 

Major anchor institutions—such as universities, hospitals, military bases, and corporate headquarters—play a complex role in regional talent attraction. These anchors can be major assets for a community’s economy and workforce. A big state university or renowned medical center not only directly employs thousands of skilled workers but also draws in students, researchers, and related businesses. 

College towns like Ann Arbor, MI (#91 large metro, home of the University of Michigan), or Boulder, CO (#51 large metro, home of the University of Colorado main campus), enjoy a steady influx of young talent each year alongside a culture of innovation and entrepreneurship spawned by their universities. Likewise, a city with a large military base (like Killeen, TX, #16 large metro, near Fort Hood) benefits from a constant rotation of trained personnel and federally supported jobs, and a corporate headquarters (like Walmart in Bentonville, AR, part of the Fayetteville region ranked #40 for large metros) can anchor a whole ecosystem of suppliers and professionals. 

However, each type of anchor institution comes with its own risk. Many universities face demographic headwinds and declining enrollment. College towns face risks downwind of these demographic changes. Military bases can be subject to federal realignment or base closures; hospitals are grappling with persistent workforce shortages; and corporate headquarters may relocate or downsize, leaving communities vulnerable to sudden job losses and economic disruption. Diversifying around these anchors is key to long-term resilience.

How Lightcast Can Help

Lightcast helps regions understand the economic footprint of their anchor institutions and develop diversification strategies to build long-term resilience.

• Economic Impact Studies: Quantify the importance of anchor institutions to regional economic vitality and anticipate changes in job count, revenue, and taxes associated with gaining or losing major economic entities.
  
  The Alabama Community College System, for example, partnered with Lightcast to measure their colleges' contribution to the state's educational and economic landscape. We found that the ACCS has a $6.6 billion impact annually, supporting 1 out of every 27 jobs in the state, and taxpayers gain $1.40 for every dollar spent on the system.

• Alumni Pathways: Measures how well higher education institutions are preparing students to meet regional talent needs. Learn how the University of Louisiana System and the University of Nevada, Las Vegas use this data to align their programs with employer and industry demands, strengthening the connection between anchor institutions and local economic development.
  
  Industry Diversification Insights: Provides comprehensive analysis of your complete industry mix, including the number of businesses that make up industries representing high shares of employment or gross regional product. Use these insights to identify opportunities for economic diversification around anchor institutions and reduce vulnerability to disruptions like the coming enrollment cliff.