#New Jersey, New York top list of states people are fleeing most

New data shows that people flooded out of the Empire State during the pandemic, as 67-percent of all long distance moves were made by people leaving New York while only 33 percent were by people moving in, Bloomberg News reported.

The data, complied by United Van Lines from March 1 to August 19, puts New York second in the nation only to New Jersey, where 69 percent of people who moved skipped out while only 31 percent of moves were by people entering the Garden State.

Connecticut trails closely behind them in fourth place with 64 percent of moves being people who left the state, Bloomberg News reported.

Meanwhile, the top three states to welcome people moving in were, Vermont, Idaho and Oregon, the report shows.

In Vermont only 25-percent of moves were people leaving the state, while 75 percent were people moving in. Idaho saw only 33-percent of people who moved heading out of state, while the rate in Oregon was only 37 percent.

“We have seen increased mobility across the states — driven by a fear of living in densely populated areas, a realization that the ‘old normal’ of commuting into a city office is still but a distant possibility, and the realization that remote work can be an effective, long-term option,” Gregory Daco, a chief US economist at Oxford Economics, told Bloomberg.

But William Frey, a demographer and Brookings Institution senior fellow, said he believed the exodus of urban destinations such as New York won’t last forever.

“These recent population shifts, if real, will be short-lived and change when the pandemic subsides,” he told the outlet. “Young adult Gen Zers could find cities attractive.”