Pandemic tempts US technology workers away from Silicon Valley

A triangular table in a conference room inside Building 21 at the Microsoft Campus in Redmond, Washington, US. A surge of tech workers are leaving traditional hubs such as San Francisco, Seattle and New York, new data suggests, sparking speculation the pandemic has forced the industry to start edging away from its coastal strongholds. — Bloomberg

WASHINGTON: Peter Mullen was in no doubt that moving from the middle of the United States to California as a teenager was an upgrade. It was not until the Covid-19 pandemic hit that the tech worker began to change his mind.

Confined to his small home and limited by “astronomically” high living costs in Silicon Valley, Mullen decided to return to his childhood hometown of Tulsa, Oklahoma, drawn by an initiative offering US$10,000 (RM43,700) cash and other perks to relocate.