The article doesn't have any concrete numbers for where companies are moving, but it does offer this:
"People telecommute. People move into the city or into faux-urban areas that are friendlier to pedestrians, that aren’t barnacled on a highway. Younger generations don’t want to be stranded in a “Dilbert” cartoon. They want cozy nooks and nap spaces, walkable commutes, the tastes and conveniences of the city."
I suspect it is driven partly (mostly?) by a reduction in square footage per employee, as a cost-cutting measure. Companies either downsize the space without downsizing their workforce, or do not upsize their space when hiring after they downsized both workforce and space during the recession.
The article does suggest that more people are telecommuting, but given the amount of resistance that all employers have to telecommuting, I'm hesitant to believe. I really doubt that, all of a sudden, tens of thousands of federal employees are working from home.
Actually, teleworking is definitely pushed as an option in the federal government. Not least of which through the "Telework Enhancement Act of 2010"
The current administration is big on it, partly for office space savings, partly to apologize for the paycut most government workers take over the private sector (I suspect, anyhow).
In practice, it looks a lot like hot desking, because you have to show up in the office once a week, and teleworkers usually end up sharing a desk amongst themselves. It allows workers in the DC area to live in affordable West Virginia :D or Fredricksburg or wherever and not kill themselves commuting
I'm betting they're using smaller offices closer to downtown or urban centers. Mainly because I can't imagine the same large scale offices being cheap for any company downtown.
"People telecommute. People move into the city or into faux-urban areas that are friendlier to pedestrians, that aren’t barnacled on a highway. Younger generations don’t want to be stranded in a “Dilbert” cartoon. They want cozy nooks and nap spaces, walkable commutes, the tastes and conveniences of the city."