Over the course of 2021, the U.S. unemployment rate fell from 6.3 percent in January to 3.9 percent by year’s end. Consequently, companies are finding it difficult to hire new employees, while also facing the highest resignation rate in decades – a trend dubbed “The Great Resignation.”   This, in turn, is causing companies to reevaluate their location decisions.

In order to determine whether or not a prospective location’s labor supply will satisfy a company’s needs, the business must first understand its own data, i.e., workers needed by job title and the estimated wages it can budget for each. It also needs to analyze where those workers will come from by studying population demographics, unemployment numbers, and training availability. Looking at the competition for labor at a given location is also key.

Additionally, companies are looking to lesser known geographies where they can find more accessible pools of high-quality and cost-effective labor in a less competitive hiring environment. They need to consider the talent specialization found at a particular location and the in-migration patterns.

Finally, in today’s hiring environment,  businesses are increasingly interested in measuring how a location’s labor market is positioned to advance their goals around creating a workforce that is racially and ethnically diverse, has improved gender representation, and is located in a city and state whose laws and policies create an equitable and inclusive environment. Locations that scored favorably from a quantitative  perspective have been eliminated from consideration because their current political environment — when it comes to diversity and inclusion — did not match up to a company’s core values.