The home of mega-corporations like Coca Cola and Delta Airlines is also the best place to start your own business, according to new LinkedIn data.
Atlanta was recognized as the No. 1 U.S. metro area with the fastest year-over-year growth, 92%, in people founding their own companies, per the job search site.
The Atlanta metro area is growing “at a breakneck pace” thanks to a strong job recovery since the pandemic, reports Fox 5 Atlanta. And it was also recognized as the No. 1 place for young professionals to start a career, according to a report from Wallethub, based on metrics like availability of jobs, average starting salary, unemployment rate, median annual income, housing affordability and family-friendliness.
Also down south, No. 2 Austin has seen its own entrepreneurial boom during the pandemic as people fled pricey cities like San Francisco and New York, lured by the city’s warm weather, low cost of living and lack of state income tax. In the last year, it saw an 84% increase in residents becoming founders.
Seattle rounds out the top three, with 75% year-over-year growth in its founder community. The city’s outsized tech scene may be a potential breeding ground for the entrepreneurial to launch their own startups.
Here are the top 10 metros seeing the fastest growth in people starting their own businesses, according to LinkedIn:
- Atlanta
- Austin, Texas
- Seattle
- San Francisco
- Chicago
- Boston
- Miami-Fort Lauderdale
- New York City
- Los Angeles
- Denver
Atlanta and Austin are both seeing a lot of inward migration, says George Anders, LinkedIn’s senior editor at large, “as people in all kinds of professions decide that these are the Grade-A destinations in terms of finding success for their careers, families and work-life prospects.”
Some newcomers may become entrepreneurs themselves, while existing residents may also see new people as prospective customers. “They don’t have favorite restaurants or stores yet, so they’re more willing to try yours,” Anders says.
“They also need help buying homes, choosing schools, finding contractors and a whole lot more,” he adds. “So that translates into a very promising customer base that new entrepreneurs can tap into.”
Elsewhere in the country, the only representative for Silicon Valley — San Francisco — comes in at No. 4.
“Though the San Francisco Bay Areas remains one of the world’s leading places for tech startups, it’s possible or perhaps likely that smaller ‘Main Street’ businesses aren’t opening at a nation-leading pace,” Anders says.
Other pricey cities like New York City and Los Angeles crack the top 10, but are outnumbered by lower cost-of-living areas like Chicago and Miami.
Across the U.S., nearly 1 in 5 adults are in the process of starting a business or have done so in the last 3½ years, according to the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor report and reported by The Washington Post.
Entrepreneurship is at its highest level since the survey began in 1999, and follows early predictions that Covid-19 job losses could spur more people to strike out on their own.
Several years later, “We’re seeing an upward trend in entrepreneurship that’s continued through the pandemic, and that’s a really great sign,” Donna Kelley, a professor at Babson College and the report’s lead author, told The Washington Post. “It means businesses are introducing innovation, creating jobs and contributing to the competitiveness of the United States.”
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