WFH FTW
Why Austin is one of the best cities for millennials to work remotely
The most recent U.S. Census data says that millennials make up the majority of the U.S. workforce — and a large chunk of this workforce is currently working from home.
But who's working from the most advantageously located couch right now? According to WhistleOut.com, a telecommunications search engine, that would be the residents of Austin.
The Capital City is ranked No. 4 on the list of the best U.S. cities for millennials to work from home, and when you look at the methodology used, the results make a lot of sense.
A location's high cost of living tends to make that city a poor candidate for remote working — New York City and many California locales land in the bottom 10 — so Austin's rapidly growing rent and home prices should prohibit it from landing so high.
However, WhistleOut only factors cost of living as 30 percent of the score. The biggest chunk (40 percent) is awarded to how much of the population is already working from home, which thanks to the ongoing pandemic means "a lot."
Another 20 percent goes to the average download speed of home internet in the area — remember, this is what WhistleOut studies — and the final 10 percent is the number of coffee shops per 100,000 residents.
Including the already mentioned U.S. Census data, the website also used public business listings and internet speed test results reported for each city, then put its findings on a 0-1 scale and combined the adjusted measurements with the weighted percentages above for the final results.
Austin isn't the only Texas city to fare well in the study. The Dallas suburb of Plano is right behind it at No. 5, but unfortunately Laredo is No. 96 out of 100.
Scottsdale, Arizona, nabs the top spot overall, earning a score of 81.3 out of 100. For comparison's sake, runner-up Kansas City, Missouri, scored only a 55.2. But anything is better than Orlando, Florida, which ranked dead last.
