Sunny but expensive: Thousands more workers left California than arrived during a stretch last year. Here’s where they went.

An aerial view of a house in Tustin, which recently joined the state’s long list of cities with median home values of more than $1 million. of Realtors, which analyzed U.S. census data from the third quarter of 2023, found nearly 87,000 workers flocked from California to other states for new jobs, while the Golden State gained only 69,000 new workers. Even though California’s job market remains strong, high costs of living and a lack of affordable housing, especially in cities such as Los Angeles and San Francisco, play a role in why people accept jobs elsewhere, said Nadia Evangelou, a senior economist for the Realtors association. “This trend is concerning because it reflects the economic strain that high housing costs place on professionals, even those with stable incomes.” Politics Hidden costs for remote workers moving out of California California’s progressive employment laws and generous state-mandated benefits are often lost when workers move to red states to find cheaper housing and lower taxes. That could also leave workers contemplating whether they should find new opportunities elsewhere in states such as Texas that don’t have an income tax.