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There was a study which I cannot locate right now which discussed that one of the substantial impacts of a Walmart moving into a town was that all the "communit
by kokokokoko 8y ago
There was a study which I cannot locate right now which discussed that one of the substantial impacts of a Walmart moving into a town was that all the "community leadership" type jobs left. Things like accountants and office admins and other business professionals. This was because the small businesses Walmart replaced were the ones that used these services locally. Walmart did these things at it's corporate office far away from the community.
So those who did mid-level things like accounting or office administrative work could no longer find work locally and either had to move or take a lower paying service worker position at Walmart.
Essentially what that reveals is that most of these mid-level jobs are susceptible to the Balassa-Samuelson (BS) effect [1]
Which means that most jobs that do not require physical labor onsite are either being rapidly outsourced to cheaper markets or automated if possible. This ends up being that group in the middle of the pay range and likely accounts for the reduction in overall wages for that group.
[1] http://www.bankpedia.org/index.php/en/87-english/b/23137-balassa-samuelson-effect-encyclopedia http://www.bankpedia.org/index.php/en/87-english/b/23137-bal...
- Ibethewalrus 8y agoThe Walmart study sounds quite interesting, and makes sense. Source?
- jldugger 8y agoIt's not wrong, a LOT of tech companies have opened up support offices in Texas. The inexplicable thing is why engineering stays in SV.
- root_axis 8y agoThat's like asking why banking stays on Wallstreet. It's because that's where the biggest and most influential firms are headquartered.
- jldugger 8y agoI think it's a fair question though. Obviously talent is tough enough to recruit that you don't tell engineers they're relocating and expect to keep them. But you can choose to build offices outside one very influential city: - Google bought the Port Authority building, which is like 2 empire state buildings in terms of office space. They have plenty of engineers working there: https://www.wired.com/2010/12/google-nyc/ https://www.wired.com/2010/12/google-nyc/ This year they bought the building next door: https://www.blog.google/inside-google/company-announcements/furthering-our-new-york-investment/ https://www.blog.google/inside-google/company-announcements/... - Apple has a large campus in Austin: http://fortune.com/2016/09/01/apple-austin-campus/ http://fortune.com/2016/09/01/apple-austin-campus/ - Amazon's obviously diversifying "HQ" locations The question is why companies hiring engineers by the thousands every year keep pushing to open more offices in the valley. Why is it ideal to shift HR and accounting away from the west coast but keep engineering local?
- eloisant 8y agoBecause that's where the money is. VC are in SV and they want founders/CEOs close by. And founders/CEO want their engineers close by. But honestly even if you really need your headquarters in SV (for VC money, network, saying you're a "Silicon Valley company", etc) your best bet is to open offices in other locations to hire engineers. Not only they can have a better standard of living even if you pay them less, but you will have less competition to hire and retain engineers.
- notfromhere 8y agoVCs are lazy and dont like traveling more than an hour