Wakefield New Resident Event Highlighted Shifting Work Trends, Town Councilor Says

WAKEIFLED, MA — Wakefield’s latest new resident open house this month, in part, underscored a continuing trend in an era of remote work, Town Council Chair Mehreen Butt said in a report to colleagues this week.

Some at the event had moved to Wakefield to work remotely and enjoy local amenities, Butt said. Still others have moved to now commute to communities north of town, rather than to destinations closer to Boston.

Dubbed Wakefield 101, the open house event moved forward on Oct. 20 at the Americal Civic Center in Wakefield.

Launched in 2019 and now back from a COVID-19 hiatus, the event aimed to provide new Wakefield residents with a chance to connect with one another while learning about various town amenities.

“It is really one of the truly feel-good events of the town,” Butt said on Monday.

This latest event drew 80 registered families, according to Butt.

Those families came to Wakefield from a variety of locations, Butt said, with the most distant point of origin being in Ireland.

Butt said she saw families choosing to come to Wakefield because of remote work that now allows them more commuting flexibility.

Some who are still commuting to in-person jobs, Butt said, are now also heading to new destinations, with jobs in places like Tewksbury, Billerica and Wilmington.

Experts have noted wider trends in remote work and shifting populations since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Census data in December of last year showed more than 37,000 people moved out of Massachusetts entirely between 2020 and 2021. That represented the fourth largest decline in the country and the largest decline among New England states.

Data simultaneously showed more rural states gaining ground, with Idaho leading the country in population growth, followed by Utah and Montana.

As the state lost some of its population, it still had a high volume of remote workers, according a new batch of census data shared last month.

The state sat fifth in the country in its proportion of remote workers in 2021, according to the census, with 23.7% of workers doing their jobs from home.

The Boston Globe noted previous data showing a major increase in these figures, with just 5.4% of Massachusetts residents working from home in 2019.

“Work and commuting are central to American life, so the widespread adoption of working from home is a defining feature of the COVID-19 pandemic,” Census Bureau Statistician Michael Burrows said in a press release paired with September census data. “With the number of people who primarily work from home tripling over just a two-year period, the pandemic has very strongly impacted the commuting landscape in the United States.”

The PEW Charitable Trusts noted COVID-19-era population trends in March. While out-of-state moves happened, the outlet said many people also simply moved from more dense urban centers to nearby suburban communities.

As data has reinforced these trends, though, PEW reported that the shift was already beginning to slow down.

Back in Wakefield, new residents who missed the town's latest open house will have a new chance to take part in the event next year as the town plans to continue its open house schedule with new events every six months.