PEOPLE are moving to Manchester during the pandemic to get work, a better job or even just to make new friends
Since lots of jobs have been lost and people have been made redundant throughout Covid-19, some thought it would be better to move to a larger city for employability.
Blanca Alhambra, a Physio therapist, moved to Manchester from Newcastle towards the end of the first lockdown.
She said: “I was working in private health care, and when the pandemic started, I wanted to go into the NHS to support as much as I could with my job.
“I’ve been thinking about moving to a bigger city for a while and I thought because the pandemic, from my point of view, was going to create an economy crisis, moving to a bigger city was the appropriate thing.”
But others moved up here for the first lockdown and ‘haven’t left’.
Kayleigh Drake, moved to the city from London to isolate with her boyfriend last March, she said: “I still had a job in London, but we were working from home, so I came up here and haven’t left.”
Although Kayleigh had some mutual friends in Manchester, she resorted to using Facebook groups to find others because of the ongoing social restrictions.
Jovita Adom, has also tried to make friends online after moving up from London in February 2020.
She said: “It’s really different to try to connect with someone you’ve never met before in person, it’s not the same, you can’t start a friendship like that I don’t think, or I haven’t been very successful at it.”