Relocation Rates Inch Higher Among Job Seekers
According to reported data compiled by outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas, relocation rates for those seeking jobs “have fallen every year since 2017, when 11.2% of job seekers relocated for work,” and declined more sharply in the first two years of the pandemic, “before hitting a record low of 1.1% in the final quarter of 2023.” However, the trend has been slowly reversing across wage levels, as the “proportion of U.S. job seekers relocating for new positions” reached 2.7% in the 2nd quarter of 2024 — an increase of nearly 29% and 12.5% quarter-over-quarter and year-over-year, respectively. Fueling the shift are mandates requiring more frequent in-office work by a growing number of companies; as well as “trends showing slowed hiring and rising unemployment in the first half of 2024, as job cuts continue in multiple industries.” Another possible factor is climate change which has largely brought about an increase in severe storms and other natural events such as droughts and wildfires,” particularly in the high-risk regions of the coastal areas of the Sunbelt, stretching from North Carolina to Texas. These are the “same southern metropolitan areas that enjoyed significant in-migration growth in 2023 due to their economic opportunities,” but these fast-growing metropolitan regions within the states of Florida, South Carolina, Alabama, and Texas, are also “among those most prone to economic losses” as a result — a trend that is likely to increase in the coming years according to reported findings in a recent report released by analysts at Oxford Economics.