What’s behind Hampton Roads’ outmigration?

Young people have been leaving Hampton Roads in recent years, and area leaders say learning why is the first step toward fixing the problem.

A June survey conducted by the Hampton Roads Workforce Council, Hampton Roads Executive Roundtable and Richmond-based Fahrenheit Advisors found that 25% of 511 residents surveyed said they were unsure or thought it was unlikely they’d be living in the region in five years. Skewing younger and lacking family or military ties to the area, the cohort said reasons they might move include high cost of living, crime, lack of career opportunities and health care disparities.

According to Census data, net immigration has grown in Richmond and other areas of Virginia but declined in Hampton Roads.

“It’s really a road map for us,” says Shawn Avery, president and CEO of the Hampton Roads Workforce Council. “We’ve got to do a better job as a region in telling our story of what we have here, what opportunities are available.”

Although there’s work to do, Avery says, the workforce council and local partners can use the survey to retain the young talent needed to fill jobs in the region.

Take for example Caroline Buggé, 26, an attorney at Troutman Pepper Hamilton Sanders who grew up in Fairfax County before heading to William & Mary. After graduating law school last spring, she joined Troutman Pepper’s Virginia Beach office.

Building a life in Hampton Roads wasn’t on her radar growing up. But after years studying at W&M, spending a summer in Norfolk and participating in Virginia Beach’s Shamrock Marathon, Buggé decided the city was a good place to start her career. She has family in Texas and Florida and considered opportunities nearer them, but Virginia Beach won out.

“I thought a lot about which tradeoffs I wanted, and I really don’t feel like I’ve settled in any way,” Buggé says. “I feel like I found a sweet spot.”

Despite that, Buggé isn’t committed to Hampton Roads as a forever home. It’s too soon to tell, she says, where personal and professional opportunities might take her.

Avery notes it will take concerted efforts to create a strategy to keep young adults like Buggé in the 757. “There’s not going to be one solution that fits everything. It’s got to be a multipronged approach.”