Washington, D.C.: The No. 1 "Youth-Magnet" City
And everyone wants to work for Barack Obama
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Meet more boring people TODAY!
Young professionals are a-hankerin' to sit on delayed-to-infinity Metro trains, eat cheese fries at 4.am. and/or turn 18th Street into a biweekly Bourbon Street. At least that's what the Wall Street Journal is wildly implying this morning. A team of their experts has picked D.C. as the #1 -- OK, it was a tie with Seattle -- city for young professionals to move once this crazy recession thing has truly died down.
Why were we so fortuitously chosen? Due to the abundance of skinny-jean hipsters, independent fair-trade coffeehouses, or garage bands in need of new members? Maybe our burgeoning underground arts scene?
Nah, it's the government jobs. Admit it, you knew that was coming.
Government hiring is projected to grow fast, and jobs in lobbying, aerospace, defense contracting and professional services are also a draw. Mr. [Ross] DeVol [director of regional economics for the nonprofit Milken Institute] calls Washington the national leader in high-tech services, surpassing Silicon Valley. Washington's 4,000-plus nonprofits hold appeal for service-minded youth. And amid rising regulation of financial markets, says Barbara Lang, president of the DC Chamber of Commerce, "much of Wall Street is now moving to K Street."
Our eyes just glazed over, but we think the gist is that D.C. is attracting driven people interested in government and finance. Great, that's just what the District needed more of!
So we're not cool. We already knew that. At least we get way less rain than Seattle.
Posted Wednesday, Sep 30, 2009 - 9:54 AM EST
