Update: Says United Van Lines of the Massachusetts data, “There 5,628 moves in and out of Massachusetts in 2013. More than 44% (2,492 moves) were coming into the state. Nearly 56% (3,136 moves) were leaving.”
Massachusetts and Boston in particular are renowned for amenities such as prestigious high-education institutions, a burgeoning tech industry, affordable healthcare, and perhaps most importantly, a trophy case chock full of world championships. It’s no wonder so many people are looking to call the Bay State home. But it might not be as many as you think.
Moving company United Van Lines’s 37th Annual Migration Study, which tracks the states in which its customers move to and from, has found that Massachusetts is the 8th top outbound state for movers.
Despite the number of advantages afforded to Commonwealth residents, this comes as no surprise, really, seeing as how cost of living – rent, transportation, food, etc. – are astronomically high, competition for jobs in the aforementioned areas are cutthroat, and to top it all off, we’re stuck in a frigid weather system known aptly as the Polar Vortex.
Joining Massachusetts on the list were Northeasterly states like New Jersey and New York, at numbers one and three respectively, as well as Connecticut which at number five.
So the question remains, how do we clot this hemorrhaging of people?
It’s a difficult question, one that mandates first recognizing the demographic that’s actually fleeing. They’re mostly millennials, Generation Y, the ones who trek to and graduate from Boston’s distinguished collegiate scene only to be slapped with tens of thousands of dollars of debt, with little-to-no job prospects.
But keep in mind there’s a new mayor in Boston, one intent on coagulating this migration in hopes of the rest of the state following suit.
Back in October and prior to assuming his role in City Hall, BostInno hosted Mayor Marty Walsh at a campaign event in the Seaport District where he outlined his plan for retaining young talent. The first step, according to Walsh, is allowing Boston’s culture to blossom and subsequently influence this population.
“I think we need to take our city into the 21sty century in more ways than one, and one of those is by looking at our young talent and retaining it, and some of that is by keeping our restaurants and bars open later at night,” Offered Mayor Walsh. “We have to open that culture up a little bit.”
Late-night bars and restaurants are one facet, so is late-night transportation to allow the former to actually happen. Another may be developing affordable housing. Same goes for developing an innovation hub elsewhere in the city in the same mold as the Seaport.
Though this dismal designation by United Van Lines is skewed – it’s only a measurement of their customers, not a true sample size of the entire state – it’s a striking indication that immediate change is needed. Mayor Marty Walsh is only days into his administration so it’s still too early to tell if he’s truly capable of turning this trend around, but he’s begun to surround himself with a viable administration with unlimited potential for positive change.
BostInno reached out directly to United Van Lines for the statistics pertaining to those moving in and out of Massachusetts but have yet to hear back.
