Who’s Winning — and Losing — Corporate Headquarters

ome fascinating analysis of corporate relocation activity appeared in my inbox just as we were completing work on this issue. It’s called the 2023 Study: Corporate Relocation at Highest Rate Since 2017, and it’s from HireAHelper.com, a website for finding movers, including those who specialize in corporate relocations, and a top source for moving industry pricing data and statistics. 

Based on Securities and Exchange Commission filings, HireAHelper determined that 593 U.S. corporations — about 9% — moved their headquarters since the beginning of 2022, which is the highest rate since 2017. Additional findings: 

• 29% more companies moved their HQs in 2022-23 than in the previous fiscal year.
• 20% of corporate relocations happened within the same city; 31% moved to a different city within the same state.
• 62% of corporations moved to a city with a smaller population.
• 72% of people would be prepared to move with their employer, provided relocation costs were covered.
• Almost half (44%) of survey respondents would be willing to follow their employer to a different state.

Where are they going, and which locations are they leaving? Florida (+86%) and Texas (+71%) are the states with the greatest net gain of corporate headquarters in the past year. Washington (-83%) registered the highest net loss of corporate HQs since the start of 2022. Waltham (+175%) and Burlington (+133%), Massachusetts, and Spring, Texas (+100%) had the most corporate move-ins, compared to the number of those moving out. Cambridge, Massachusetts (-40%), Seattle, Washington (-37%), and San Jose, California (-25%) are the cities with the largest net losses of corporate HQs in the past year.

“It was surprising to see Washington atop the list of net-loss states, with 83% more companies leaving it than moving in,” HireAHelper’s Chief Data Analyst Miranda Marquit told me. “Known as a hotbed for startups with a robust venture community, and a high-tech workforce, it seems to have hit an inflection point. Office-moving trends appear to be relatively similar to individual people’s moving trends, in the sense that people are leaving bigger cities for less densely populated areas.”

That’s an observation you’ll come across in the America’s Best Counties cover story and Rural Advantage feature in this issue. Other highlights are a Q&A with the Micron executive heading the chip maker’s massive investments in New York and Idaho and how one state is tackling the challenge of incorporating soft skills into K-12 education. Great summer reading here.

Till next time,

Mark Arend, Editor in Chief