So I live in southern California but more in the inland empire side of so cal but I'm originally from orange county.
Most of what I see happening is the kid's of baby boomers who were born and raised in orange county (very high cost of living location) either end up moving entirely out of state or move towards inland empire where cost of living is cheaper….but now even inland empire is starting to get expensive so now people are moving to the high desert (victorville, palmdale, barstow etc.).
If you are low-wage worker commuting from Victorville to Newport beach for example isn't really realistic. Probably a 4 hour commuting one way during rush hour.
We are already seeing impacts of demographics shifting where school enrollment declining in Orange County simply because young families aren't moving there. Instead people move to inland empire and beyond if they want to start a family.
Wouldn't these continued shifts eventually start having massive labor shortages in these areas? I've been to places like newport beach, Huntington beach etc and they're all filled with jobs that pay low-wages in hotels, restaurants, fast food etc.
It hasn't happened yet because when I go there, I still see people behind the counter stocking shelves, preparing food, cleaning stuff etc. All those jobs are paying under $20/hour which is far below poverty level for that area (Homes are often 1M+ and rents are 3k+ even for a studio).
The other thing is I noticed many of these low-wage jobs actually pay about the same in places like victorville, barstow etc. They're all paying $16-$20/hour so I have no idea why anyone would work a McShit job in places like newport beach. It isn't cheap to drive a car and taking mass transit (in so cal) is horribly slow.