Americans have never been so unwilling to relocate for a new job

By Alex Tanzi, Bloomberg

Can’t move, won’t move. That’s increasingly the approach of Americans who are in the market for a new job.

The share of job seekers who relocated to take up a new position fell to 1.6%, the lowest level on record, in the first quarter of 2023, according to a quarterly survey that’s been carried out by executive coaching firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas, Inc. for decades.

Behind the shift in attitudes lies a post-pandemic surge in remote and hybrid positions, which has made it possible for more workers to stay where they’re living even as they change jobs. What’s more, higher interest rates have made buying a house somewhere else more expensive — especially when it also requires people to sell an existing home that’s financed with a mortgage locked in at low costs.

And all of that comes on top of longer-term trends that have seen US workers grow steadily more reluctant to relocate — perhaps because diminishing job security has made the costs of moving house seem like less of a safe investment.

“In the 1980s and 90s, nearly a third of job seekers would move for new positions,” said Andrew Challenger, senior vice president at Challenger, Gray & Christmas. “Now, remote and hybrid positions are keeping workers at home.”