TECHNOLOGY AT WORK v7.0:The Third Phase of Globalization

The Web had just arrived, email had just arrived, and pundits and academics widely predicted the end of the office and the death of cities. [...] © 2023 Citigroup 10 Citi GPS: Global Perspectives & Solutions October 2023 The New Geography of Work Much like in the 1990s, economists are now debating how the rise of remote work will change the geography of jobs and shape the fates of cities. [...] Silicon Valley: The Next Detroit? Is what happened to manufacturing and mining cities in the past now also happening to technology hubs? Writing in the 1970s, the futurist Alvin Toffler suggested that the world was at the cusp of a third wave. [...] Data from ZipRecruiter, for example, suggests that the percentage of fully remote job openings in tech has increased from 12% in 2019 to 39% in early 2022.39 As noted, in the years leading up to the pandemic, established innovation hubs dominated the growth of the tech sector. [...] And among the cities that rebounded, most did still not register the growth levels they achieved earlier in the 2010s, or even in 2019, despite significant tailwinds stemming from the reopening of the economy to both domestic and international migration.44 The most pronounced shifts have most certainly already happened but given the high share of jobs that can be done remotely, and the cost of liv.