Skip to content
Wealth
Living

‘Zoom Towns’ Exploded in the Work-From-Home Era. Now New Residents Are Facing Layoffs

People relocated to smaller cities in search of lower costs and a better quality of life. Job cuts are pushing them in unexpected directions.

Jesse Lindsey, 39-year-old father and Navy veteran, was able to move to picturesque Bozeman, Montana, during the pandemic when working from home was mandatory. 

Jesse Lindsey, 39-year-old father and Navy veteran, was able to move to picturesque Bozeman, Montana, during the pandemic when working from home was mandatory. 

Photographer: Louise Johns/Bloomberg
By

Before he was laid off by Amazon, Jesse Lindsey was making more money than he ever had in his life working from home in Bozeman, Montana.

After losing his job, the 39-year-old father and Navy veteran found himself stacking boxes at the local Lowe’s. It wasn’t the life he pictured when he moved with his family last summer, giving up a peripatetic Navy life to take a fully remote job as a technical recruiter in the mountain town.